LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf. „LBxoa5" 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



AUG 31 t . 



THEORY AND PRACTICE 



TEACHING 

OR 

THE MOTIVES AND METHODS 



OF 



GOOD SCHOOL-KEEPING 

By DAVID P.' PAGE, A.M. 

FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, ALBANY, NEW YORK 



pr /J 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR 



A NEW EDITION, EDITED AND ENLARGED 

W. H . PAYNE 

PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF TEACHING IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 



; <Z\X<* ~@J 



Copyright, 1885 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 

>: 



LBIOIS 
.P/3 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



MANY a meritorious book has failed to find 
readers by reason of a toilsome preface. 
If the following volume meets a similar fate, what- 
ever its merits, it shall lack a like excuse. 

This work has had its origin in a desire to 
contribute something toward elevating an impor- 
tant and rising profession. Its matter comprises 
the substance of a part of the course of lectures 
addressed to the classes of the Institution under 
my charge, during the past two years. Those 
lectures, unwritten at first, were' delivered in a 
familiar, colloquial style, — their main object being 
the inculcation of such practical views as would 
best promote the improvement of the teacher. 
In writing the matter out for the press, the same 
style, to a considerable extent, has been retained, — 
as I have written with an aim at usefulness 
rather than rhetorical effect. 

If the term theory in the title suggests to any 
mind the bad sense sometimes conveyed by that 



4 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

word, I would simply say, that I have not been 
dealing in the speculative dreams of the closet, 
but in convictions derived from the realities of 
the school -room during some twenty years of 
actual service as a teacher. Theory may justly 
mean the science distinguished from the art of 
Teaching, — but as in practice these should never 
be divorced, so in the following chapters I have 
endeavored constantly to illustrate the one by 
the other. 

If life should be spared and other circum- 
stances should warrant the undertaking, perhaps 
a further course comprising the Details of Teach- 
ing may, at some future time, assume a similar 
form to complete my original design. 



State Normal School, 

Albany, JV. Y., Jan. 1, 1847 



David P. Page. 

.1 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



NEARLY forty years have passed since Mr. 
Page wrote his Theory and Practice of 
Teaching, and within that period some marked 
changes have taken place in the state of edu- 
cational thought and practice ; and in under- 
taking the preparation of this new edition, my 
purpose has been, by making some additions to 
the text, to carry forward the main lines of 
thought, so that the book may be as useful to 
the coming generation of teachers as it has been 
to the past. Since its first appearance, the Theory 
and Practice of Teaching has held a unique place 
in our educational literature. Far more than any 
other book of its kind, it has set before the 
young teacher, in a clear and attractive manner, 
the problem of the school, and at the same time 
has enlisted the feelings as a motive power in 
attaining the ends thus pointed out. This treat- 
ment embodies the highest philosophy; for to 
know the end is almost to know the way, and to 



6 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 

feel a strong impulse to reach the end, is finally 
to find the way. 

My reverence for Mr. Page and his work has 
forbidden me to make the slightest change in 
the expression of his thought, and in this new 
edition the text is essentially untouched. In only 
a very few places have I made omissions of origi- 
nal matter. The Program of the Albany Normal 
School, and a few sentences in explanation of it, 
have been omitted, and a new list of books has 
been substituted for the one given on page 2 78 
of the original edition. In every respect I have 
tried to treat this work as I would wish a suc- 
cessor to treat any piece of my own writing that 
may have survived my professional life. 



University of Michigan, 
July 1, 1885. 



W. H. Payne. 

\ 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Biographical Sketch of the Author 11 

CHAPTER I. 

Fitness for Teaching 19 

CHAPTER II. 

Spirit of the Teacher 25 

CHAPTER III. 

Responsibility of the Teacher 30 

Section I. — A Neglected Tree 30 

Section II. — The Teacher is Responsible 35 

Section III. — The Auburn State Prison 54 

CHAPTER IV. 

Personal Habits of the Teacher 60 

CHAPTER V. 

Literary Qualifications of the Teacher 71 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE VI. 

PAGE 

Eight Views op Education 91 

CHAPTEE VII. 

Eight Modes of Teaching 105 

Section I. — Pouring-in Process 107 

Section II. — Drawing-out Process 109 

Section III. — The more excellent Way 114 

Section IV. — "Waking up Mind 117 

Section V. — Eemarks 130 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

Conducting Eecitations 137 

CHAPTEE IX. 

Exciting Interest in Study 154 

Section I. — Incentives. . .Emulation 155 

Section II. — Prizes 162 

Section III. — Proper Incentives 175 

CHAPTEE X. 

School Government 186 

Section I. — Eequisites in the Teacher for Good 

Government 186 

Section II. — Means of Securing Good Order 197 

Section III. — Punishments 216 

I. Improper. 219 

II. Proper 230 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE 

Section IV. — Corporal Punishment 235 

Section V. — Limitations and Suggestions 249 

Motives 259 

CHAPTEE XL 

School Arrangements 262 

Section I.— Plan of the Day's Work 269 

Program 273 

Remarks ... 274 

Section II. — Interruptions 279 

Section III. — Recesses 283 

Section IV. — Assignment of Lessons 286 

Section V. — Reviews 288 

Section VI. — Public Examinations. .Exhibitions. . 

Celebrations 290 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Teacher's Relation to the Parents op his 

Pupils • 296 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Teacher's Care of his Health 304 

Health . . Exercise . . Diet 305 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Teacher's Relation to his Profession 319 

Section I. — Self-culture 325 

Section II.— Mutual Aid 333 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

PAGE 

Miscellaneous Suggestions 344 

Section I. — Things to be Avoided 344 

Section II. — Things to be Performed 361 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Rewards op the Teacher 388 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Notes on the Teacher's Authority and Rights 405 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

DAVID PEKKI^S PAG] 

Taken from Barnard's Journal of Education. 



A MONG the self-educated teachers of our time, the men 
Jl\_ Avho, as was said of old, of poets, " were born, not 
made " teachers, and in whom the instinct for knowledge, and 
for imparting it to others, was sufficiently strong to overpower 
all obstacles and carry them to the highest eminence in their 
profession, there are none who have excelled the subject of 
this brief memoir. 

David Perkins Page was born at Epping, New Hampshire, 
on the 4th of July, 1810. His father Avas a prosperous, though 
not an affluent farmer, and his early life was passed as a 
farmer's boy, with that scant dole of instruction which, forty 
years ago, fell to the lot of farmers' sons in small country vil- 
lages in New Hampshire, or, for that matter, anywhere in New 
England. From his earliest years, however, the love of books 
was the master-passion of his soul, and in his childhood he 
plead often and earnestly with his father for the privilege of 
attending an academy in a neighboring town, but the father 
was inexorable ; he had determined that David should succeed 
him in the management of the farm, and he did not consider 
an academical education necessary for this. His refusal doubt- 
less exerted a good influence on his son ; for a mind so active 
as his, if denied the advantages of the school, must find vent 



12 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 

in some exercise, and the admirable illustrations he drew from 
nature, so often, to embellish and enforce his instructions in 
after years, showed conclusively that at this period of his life, 
the pages of the wondrous book of nature had been wide open 
before him, even though his father's fiat had deprived him of 
other sources of information. 

But He who guides the steps of his creatures had provided 
a way for the gratification of the thirst for knowledge which 
was consuming the farmer's boy, and that by what seemed an 
untoward Providence. At the age of sixteen, he was brought 
to the borders of the grave by a severe illness ; for a long time 
he lingered between life and death ; and. while in this condi- 
tion, his friends despairing of his recovery, and his father, 
whose heart yearned over him, watching his enfeebled frame, 
seemingly nigh to dissolution, the apparently dying boy turned 
his large, full eyes upon his father's face, and, in an almost 
inaudible whisper, begged that if he recovered, he might be 
allowed to go to Hampton Academy and prepare to become a 
teacher. Was not this, indeed, an example of " the ruling 
passion strong in death " 1 The father could not refuse the 
request proffered at such a time ; what father could 1 The boy 
did recover, and he did go to the academy, a plain farmer's 
boy: he dressed in plain farmer's clothes, and hence, some 
self-conceited puppies, whose more fashionable exterior could 
not hide the meanness of their souls, deemed him fit subject 
for their gibes and sneers ; but his earnest nature and his in- 
tense love of study were not to be thwarted by such rebuffs ; 
he pursued the even tenor of his way, and, having spent some 
months at the academy, he taught a district school for the ensu- 
ing winter, and then returned again to the academy. Here his 
progress in study was rapid ; but, the ensuing winter, we find 
him again teaching in his native town, and his further studies 
were prosecuted without assistance. The next winter, he had 
determined to make teaching a profession, and accordingly, 
having taught a district school at Newbury,. Mass., during the 
winter, at its close he opened a private school : a daring step for 
a young man but nineteen years of age, and who had enjoyed 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 13 

so few advantages of education. The success which followed 
fully justified the self-reliance which led him to attempt it. 
At the beginning he had live pupils, but he persevered, and 
before the close of the term, the number he had contemplated 
was full. Here, as every-where else, during his career as a 
teacher, was manifested that diligence, industry, and careful 
preparation for his duties, which made him so eminently suc- 
cessful. He studied the lessons he was to teach, thoroughly, 
that he might impart instruction with that freshness and in- 
terest which such study would give ; he studied his scholars 
thoroughly, that he might adapt his teachings to their several 
capacities, encouraging the diffident and sluggish, restraining 
the froward, and rousing the listless and careless to unwonted 
interest and energy ; he studied, too, their moral natures, and 
sought to rouse in their youthful hearts aspirations for good- 
ness and purity; and he studied whatever would enlarge his 
sphere of thought, intelligence, and usefulness. 

Such a teacher was sure to rise in reputation, — slowly, per- 
haps, but certainly; and hence it need not surprise us to learn 
that within two years he was associate principal of the New- 
buryport High School, having charge of the English depart- 
ment. Here, for twelve years, he was associated with Roger 
S. Howard, Esq., one of the most eminent teachers in Massa- 
chusetts, and how well he fulfilled his duties, Mr. Howard, 
who survived him, testifies. The same intense fondness for 
study characterized him, leading him to acquire a very compe- 
tent knowledge of the Latin language, and something of the 
Greek ; that same earnest and conscientious performance of all 
his school duties, and delight in them, were manifested here as 
in his humbler position. It was while occupying this post, 
that Jie first began to come before the public as a lecturer. He 
was an active and prominent member of the Essex County 
Teachers' Association, one of the most efficient educational 
organizations in Massachusetts, and delivered before that body 
several lectures which Hon. Horace Mann characterized as the 
best ever delivered before that or any other body. Of one of 
these, on " Tlie Mutual l)utir.< of P<tn j nt.< and Teachers" six 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

thousand copies were printed and distributed (3,000 of them at 
Mr. Mann's expense) throughout the State. Mr. Page's powers 
as an orator and debater were of a very high order ; he pos- 
sessed, says Mr. Mann (himself an orator of no mean powers), 
" that rare quality, so indispensable to an orator, the power to 
think, standing on his feet, and before folks." As a teacher, he 
exhibited two valuable qualifications : the ability to turn the 
attention of his pupils to the principles which explain facts, 
and in such a way that they could see clearly the connection ; 
and the talent for reading the character of his scholars, so 
accurately, that he could at once discern what were their gov- 
erning passions and tendencies, what in them needed encour- 
agement, and what repression. Thus, useful, active, and 
growing in reputation, Mr. Page remained at Newburyport, till 
December, 1844. 

In the winter preceding, the Legislature of New York, 
Aveariecl with the costly but unsuccessful measures which, year 
after year, had been adopted for the improvement of her public 
schools, had appointed a committee of their own body, warm 
friends of education, to visit the normal schools of Massachu- 
setts, and make a report thereon. The committee attended to 
their duties and made an elaborate report in favor of the 
adoption of the normal school system. That report was 
adopted, and an appropriation of ten thousand dollars outfit 
and ten thousand dollars per annum, for five years, was voted, 
to establish a normal school as an experiment. The friends of 
education in New York felt that, liberal as this appropriation 
was, every thing depended upon securing the right man to 
take charge of it, and long and carefully did they ponder the 
question, who that man should be. 

Mr. Page's reputation had already outrun the town and the 
county in which he resided ; and, on the recommendation of 
Hon. Horace Mann, and other friends of education in Massa- 
chusetts, Dr. (afterward Bishop) Potter, Col. Young, and other 
members of the executive committee, entered into correspond- 
ence with him on the subject. In reply to the first communi- 
cation, he addressed numerous inquiries to the committee, con 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 15 

cerning the plan proposed for the organization ami management 
of the school. 

These questions were so pointed and so well chosen, that 
Col. Young, on hearing them, at once exclaimed, " That is the 
man we need ", and expressed himself entirely satisfied, with- 
out any further evidence. So cautious, however, were the 
committee, that it was decided that, hefore closing the negotia- 
tion, Dr. Potter should visit Newburyport and have a personal 
interview with Mr. Page. He accordingly repaired thither, 
called at Mr. Page's residence, and found him in his every-day 
dress and engaged in some mechanical work connected with 
the improvement of his dwelling. An interview of a single 
half hour so fully prepossessed him with Mr. Page's personal 
bearing and conversation, that he at once closed the negotia- 
tions with him and secured his services as Principal of the 
New York State Normal School. 

Mr. Page closed his connection with the Newburyport 
High School about the middle of December, 1844, not without 
numberless demonstrations of regret and affectionate regard on 
the part of his pupils and friends. While on his way to Al- 
bany, he spent a night with Mr. Mann, in Boston, and the 
new duties he was about to undertake, the obstacles and diffi- 
culties, the opposition and misrepresentations he would meet, 
and the importance and necessity of success, formed themes of 
converse which occupied them till the early morning hours ; 
in parting, Mr. Mann said to Mr. Page, as a veteran commander 
might have said to a youthful officer going to lead a forlorn 
hope, "Succeed or die." The words sank deep into his heart ; 
they were adopted as his motto in the brief but brilliant career 
which followed, and once, on recovering from a dangerous 
illness, he reminded his friend of his injunction, and added, 
"I thought I was about to fulfill your last alternative." He 
arrived at Albany a few days before the commencement of the 
" experiment ", as the Normal School was designated, and 
found every thing in a chaotic state ; the rooms intended for 
its accommodation, yet unfinished ; there was no organization, 
no apparatus, and indeed very few of the appliances necessary 



16 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 

to a successful beginning ; while the few were hoping, though 
not without fear, for its success, and the many were prophesy- 
ing its utter failure. From this chaos, the systematic mind of 
Mr. Page soon evolved order : full of hope and confident of 
the success of the Normal School system himself, he infused 
energy and courage into the hearts of its desponding friends, 
and caused its enemies to falter, as they saw how all obstacles 
yielded to the fascination of his presence, or the power of his 
will. The school commenced with twenty-five scholars, but 
ere the close of its first term, the number had increased to one 
hundred. At the commencement of the second term, two 
hundred assembled for instruction. From this time its course 
was onward; every term increased its popularity; and the 
accommodations provided for it, large as they were, were soon 
crowded. For the first three years, it had to contend with 
numerous and unscrupulous foes, some of whom attacked the 
system, others its practical workings, others still, who were 
strangers to his person, attacked the character of the principal 
of the school. Meantime, Mr. Page labored indefatigably : 
against the assaults upon the organization, or its practical 
operations, he interposed able, manly, and courteous defenses ; 
those which were leveled at himself, he bore in silence ; but 
no man, whatever his position in the State, and however bitter 
might have been his hostility to the school, or to its principal, 
ever came within the magnetism of his presence and influence 
without being changed from an enemy into a friend. Among 
the most decided, as well as the most conscientious opposers of 
the Normal School, was the Hon. Silas Wright ; indeed, in 
his election as governor, the enemies of the school claimed a 
triumph and counted largely on his eminent abilities to aid 
them in putting it down; but a very few months' residence in 
Albany converted this man, of strong and determined will, 
into one of its sincerest friends. During the vacations of the 
school, Mr. Page gave himself no rest ; he visited different 
parts of the State, attended teachers' institutes, lectured day 
after day, and, wherever he went, removed prejudices, cleared 
up doubts, and won golden opinions. Every such visit drew 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 17 

a large number of pupils to the school, from the section visited, 
the ensuing term. The State Superintendent was accustomed 
to say " that he needed only to look at the catalogue of the 
Normal School, to tell where Mr. Page had spent his va- 
cations." 

Before four years had passed, the school had ceased to he 
an "experiment"; it was too firmly rooted in the hearts of 
the people to be abandoned, and the opposition, which had at 
first been so formidable, had dwindled into insignificance. 
But the toil requisite to accomplish this had been too arduous 
for any constitution, however vigorous, to endure. The au- 
tumnal term of 1847 found him cheerful and hopeful as ever, 
but with waning physical strength ; he sought (an unusual 
thing for him) the aid of his colleagues in the performance of 
duties he had usually undertaken alone, and at length con- 
sented to take a vacation of a week or two during the Christ- 
mas holidays. Alas ! the relaxation came too late ; the evening 
before he was to leave, there was a meeting of the faculty at 
his residence ; he was cheerful, but complained of slight indis- 
position, and retired early. With the night, however, came 
violent fever and restlessness, and by the morning light the 
physicians in attendance pronounced the disease pneumonia. 
At first, the attack excited little alarm, but it soon became evi- 
dent that his overtasked vital powers had not the ability to 
resist the violence of the disorder. On the fourth day, he ex- 
pressed to a friend his conviction that he should not recover. 
The severity of the disease soon increased, and, on the morning 
of January 1, 1848, he passed away. 

Six months before his death, he had, in company with one 
of his colleagues, made a brief visit to his former home, at New- 
buryport ; and, while visiting the beautiful cemetery there, he 
stopped suddenly near a shady spot, and said, " Here is where 
I desire to be buried." The sad funeral train which bore the 
clay that once had been his earthly habitation from Albany to 
Newburyport, laid it sadly, yet hopefully, in that quiet nook, 
to repose till the archangel's trump shall be heard, and the 
dead be raised. 



18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

His life had been short, as men count time ; he lacked six 
months of completing his thirty-eighth year when he was sum- 
moned to the better land ; but, if life be reckoned by what is 
accomplished, then had his life been longer far than that of 
the antediluvian patriarchs. Of the hundreds of teachers 
who were under his care at Albany, there was not one who 
did not look up to him with admiration and love ; not one 
who did not bear, to some extent, at least, the impress of his 
character and influence. Men who were trained under him at 
Albany are occupying high positions in the cause of education 
in several of the Western States ; and gifted women, who, under 
his teachings, were moved to consecrate themselves to the holy 
duty of training the young, are now at the head of seminaries 
and female schools of high order, extending his influence in 
widening circles over the boundless prairies of the West. 

Our brief narrative exhibits, we think, clearly what were 
the marked traits of Mr. Page's character — industry, perse- 
verance, decision, energy, great executive ability, ready tact, 
and conscientious adherence to what he regarded as duty. But 
no language can describe the fascination of his manner, the 
attraction of his presence, his skill in what he was accustomed 
to call the drawing-out process, or his tact in making all his 
knowledge available. His familiar lectures to his pupils on 
subjects connected with the teacher's life and duties, could 
they be published, would form an invaluable hand-book for 
teachers. He possessed, beyond most men, the happy talent 
of always saying the right thing at the right time. In personal 
appearance, Mr. Page was more than ordinarily prepossessing — 
of good height, and fine form, erect, and dignified in manner, 
scrupulously neat in person, and easy in address, he was a liv- 
ing model to his pupils of what a teacher should be. Aside 
from a few lectures, published at different times, to some of 
which we have already alluded, Mr. Page left but one pub- 
lished work — " The Theory and Practice of Teaching" a work 
which has had a large circulation, and one which no teacher 
can afford to be without. 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING. 



CHAPTER I. 

FITNESS FOR TEACHING. 

THE history of education shows that there 
have been three well marked and progress- 
ive stages of opinion with respect to fitness for 
teaching. During the earlier and the greater part 
of the historic period, when learning was monopo- 
lized by the few, all scholars were necessarily 
teachers, and it was an easy step to the inference 
that all who were learned could teach. At a 
much later period, when a general diffusion of 
knowledge had taken place, and the number of 
schools had greatly increased, it was observed 
that some scholars had high teaching power, 
while others had little or none of this gift. As 
this difference could not be attributed to differ- 
ences in scholarship, nor wholly to differences in 
natural ability, it was ascribed to high and low 
degrees of skill, and so the question of method 
was called into prominence. This step necessarily 
led to a comparison of methods, and finally to a 
search for some criterion by which they could be 
tested. This criterion turned out to be some gen- 



20 FITNESS FOR TEACHING. 

Three phases of opinion. 

eral principle or law of psychology, physiology, 
or ethics. In this way there began to appear a 
science of teaching. If we arrange these three 
conceptions of fitness for teaching in the order 
of their historical sequence, they will stand as 
follows : 

1. Scholarship. 

2. Scholarship and Method. 

3. Scholarship, Method, and v Science. 

In which stratum of thought are we living to- 
day? In all three. The first is represented in 
the laws regulating the granting of licenses to 
teach ; the second, speaking generally, in normal 
schools ; and the third, in universities where the 
study of education has been made a part of the 
curriculum. The conservatism of law is well 
known, and in prescribing scholarship as the 
main, if not the only test of fitness to teach, it 
has preserved the primitive conception of compe- 
tence for the teaching office. In the main, the 
distinctive feature of the normal school is that it 
instructs its pupils in the best methods of doing 
the various work of the school, at the same time 
that it carries forward their academic training. 
This instruction in methods is either given out of 
books or by lecture, or in observing the work done 
in model schools, or by doing actual teaching 
work in practice schools. In this country, the 
professional instruction of teachers in universities 
is of recent date, and consists chiefly in commu- 
nicating the cardinal doctrines of education and 



FITNESS FOR TEACHING. 21 

Natural ability.— Study.— Experience. 

teaching, on the hypothesis that students who 
have been liberally trained will be able, on the 
occasion of experience, to draw a rational art of 
teaching out of a science of teaching. The cur- 
rent of the educational thought of to-day may be 
interpreted as follows : True fitness for teaching, 
so far as it can be gained from instruction, con- 
sists first of all in a liberal scholarship, then in a 
knowledge of the best methods of doing the 
work of the school, and of the principles that 
underlie these methods. I Many, perhaps the most, 
of those who are to teach for a long time to 
come, will fall short of these attainments ; but 
this is a reasonable ideal toward which all should 
aspire. 

The professional education of two teachers 
may be the very same in kind and amount, and 
yet their actual teaching power may be very un- 
equal ; and this inequality we ascribe to differences 
in ability. Some are born with a predisposition 
to this kind of labor, and for others it is more or 
less unnatural. How are natural ability, study, 
and experience related to each other? This has 
never been more forcibly or more truly stated 
than by Lord Bacon in these terms : " To spend 
too much Time in Studies, is Sloth ; To use them 
too much for Ornament, is Affectation ; To make 
Judgement wholly by their Rules is the Humour 
of a Scholler. They perfect Nature, and are per- 
fected by Experience : For Naturall Abilities, are 
like Naturall Plants, that need Proyning by Study : 



22 FITNESS FOR TEACHING. 

Knowing prepares for doing. 

And Studies themselves, doe give forth Directions 
too much at Large, except they be bounded in 
by experience." The proper sequence, then, is 
this : Natural ability, study, experience. No 
matter what our natural gifts may be, they 
should be improved by study ; and the purpose 
of professional study should be (1) to take ad- 
vantage of the recorded experiences of those who 
have made high attainments in the vocation 
which we purpose to follow ; (2) to form a proper 
conception of the work we are to do ; and (3) to 
gain the instrumental knowledge that is needed 
in the practice of our art. Only when we have 
done this are we ready to undertake the duties 
of our chosen profession, for the antecedent to 
doing is knowing ; it is only the quack who will 
venture to learn his art by the practice of his 
art. 

Those who are beginning the study of educa- 
tion should be reminded that the field of inquiry 
is a vast one, and that if they would attain the 
highest professional standing, they must pursue 
this subject in its three main phases — the practi- 
cal, the scientific, and the historical. If the time 
for preparation is short, a beginning should be 
made in becoming acquainted with the best cur- 
rent methods of organizing, governing, and in- 
structing a school. Then should follow a study 
of the science of education, to the end that the 
teacher may interpret the lessons of daily expe- 
rience, and thus be helped to grow into higher 



FITNESS FOR TEACHING. 23 

4. — 

Professional study.— Culture. 

and higher degrees of competence ; and, finally, 
for giving breadth of view, for taking full advan- 
tage of all past experience and experiments, and 
for gaining that inspiration which comes from 
retracing the long line of an illustrious profes- 
sional ancestry, there should be a study of the 
history of education. 

All who propose to teach need to recollect 
that the very basis of fitness for teaching, so far 
as it can be gained from study, is a broad and 
accurate scholarship. To be a teacher, one must 
first of all be a scholar. So much stress is now 
placed on method, and the theory of teaching, 
that there is great danger of forgetting the su- 
preme importance of scholarship and culture. For 
these there is no substitute ; and any scheme of 
professional study that is pursued at the expense 
of scholarship and culture, is essentially bad. To 
be open-minded, magnanimous, and manly; to 
have a love for the scholarly vocation, and a wide 
and easy range of intellectual vision, are of in- 
finitely greater worth to the teacher than any 
authorized set of technical rules and principles. 
Well would it be for both teachers and taught, if 
all who read this book were to be inspired by 
Plato's ideal of the cultured man : " A lover, not 
of a part of wisdom, but of the whole ; who has 
a taste for every sort of knowledge and is curi- 
ous to learn, and is never satisfied ; who has mag- 
nificence of mind, and is the spectator of all time 
and all existence ; who is harmoniously consti- 



24 FITNESS FOE TEACHING. 

Plato's idea of culture. 

tuted ; of a well-proportioned and gracious mind, 
whose own nature will move spontaneously to- 
wards the true being of every thing ; who has a 
good memory, and is quick to learn, noble, gra- 
cious, the friend of truth, justice, courage, tem- 
perance." * 

* Republic, passim, 475-487. 



CHAPTER II. 

SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER. 

PERHAPS the very first question that the 
honest individual will ask himself, as he 
proposes to assume the teacher's office, or to 
enter upon a preparation for it, will be — " What 
manner of spirit am Iof?" No question can be 
more important. I would by no means under- 
value that degree of natural talent — of mental 
power, which all justly consider so desirable in 
the candidate for the teacher's office. But the 
true spirit of the teacher ; — a spirit that seeks not 
alone pecuniary emolument, but desires to be in 
the highest degree useful to those who are to be 
taught ; a spirit that elevates above every thing 
else the nature and capabilities of the human 
soul, and that trembles under the responsibility 
of attempting to be its educator ; a spirit that 
looks upon gold as the contemptible dross of 
earth, when compared with that imperishable gem 
which is to be polished and brought out into 
heaven's light to shine forever ; a spirit that 
scorns all the rewards of earth, and seeks that 
highest of all rewards, an approving conscience 
and an approving God ; a spirit that earnestly 



♦26 SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER. 

True spirit.— Motives often wrong. 

inquires what is right, and that dreads to do what 
is wrong ; a spirit that can recognize and rever- 
ence the handiwork of God in every child, and 
that burns with the desire to be instrumental in 
training it to the highest attainment of which 
it is capable, — such a spirit is the first thing to 
be sought by the teacher, and without it the 
highest talent can not make him truly excellent 
in his profession. 

The candidate for the office of the teacher 
should look well to his motives. It is easy to 
enter upon the duties of the teacher without 
preparation ; it is easy to do it without that lofty 
purpose which an enlightened conscience would 
ever demand ; but it is not so easy to undo the 
mischief which a single mistake may produce in 
the mind of the child, at that tender period when 
mistakes are most likely to be made. 

Too many teachers are found in our schools 
without the spirit for their work which is here 
insisted on. They not only have not given atten- 
tion to any preparation for their work, but resort 
to it from motives of personal convenience, and 
in many instances from a consciousness of being 
unfit for every thing else ! In other professions 
this is not so. The lawyer is not admitted to 
the bar till he has pursued a course of thorough 
preparation, and even then but warily employed. 
The physician goes through his course of reading 
and his course of lectures, and often almost 
through a course of starvation in the country 



SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER. 27 

Preparation neglected. 



village where he first puts up his sign, before he 
is called in to heal the maladies of the body. It 
is' long before he can inspire confidence enough 
in the people to be intrusted with their most dif- 
ficult cases of ailing, and very likely the noon 
of life is passed before he can consider himself 
established. But it is not so with the teacher. 
He gains access to the sanctuary of mind with- 
out any difficulty, and the most tender interests 
for both worlds are intrusted to his guidance, 
even when he makes pretension to no higher mo- 
tive than that of filling up a few months of time 
not otherwise appropriated, and to no qualifica- 
tions but those attained by accident. A late 
writer in the Journal of Education hardly over- 
states this matter : — " Every stripling who has 
passed four years within the walls of a college ; 
every dissatisfied clerk, who has not ability enough 
to manage the trifling concerns of a common re- 
tail shop ; every young farmer who obtains in the 
winter a short vacation from the toils of sum- 
mer, — in short, every young person who is con- 
scious of his imbecility in other business, esteems 
himself fully competent to train the ignorance 
and weakness of infancy into all the virtue and 
power and wisdom of maturer years, — to form a 
creature, the frailest and feeblest that heaven has 
made, into the intelligent and fearless sovereign 
of the whole animated creation, the interpreter 
and adorer and almost the representative of 
Divinity ! " 



28 SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER. 

Teaching a secondary object.— Ignorance does not excuse. 

Many there are who enter upon the high em- 
ployment of teaching a common school as a 
secondary object. Perhaps they are students 
themselves in some higher institution, and resort 
to this as a temporary expedient for paying their 
board, while their chief object is, to pursue their 
own studies and thus keep pace with their classes. 
Some make it a stepping-stone to something be- 
yond, and, in their estimation, higher in the scale 
of respectability, — treating the employment, while 
in it, as irksome in the extreme, and never mani- 
festing so much delight as when the hour arrives 
for the dismissal of their schools. Such have not 
the true spirit of the teacher ; and, if their labors 
are not entirely unprofitable, it only proves that 
children are sometimes submitted to imminent 
danger, but are still unaccountably preserved by 
the hand of Providence. 

The teacher should go to his duty full of his 
work. He should be impressed with its over- 
whelming importance. He should feel that his 
mistakes, though they may not speedily ruin him, 
may permanently injure his pupils. Nor is it 
enough that he shall say, "I did it ignorantly". 
He has assumed to fill a place where ignorance 
itself is sin ; and where indifference to the well- 
being of others is equivalent to willful homicide. 
He might as innocently assume to be the physi- 
cian, and, without knowing its effects, prescribe 
arsenic for the colic. Ignorance is not in such 
cases a valid excuse, because the assumption of 



SPIRIT OF THE TEACHER. 29 



Dangerous to mislead mind. 



the place implies a pretension to the requisite 
skill. Let the teacher, then, well consider what 
manner of spirit he is of. Let him come to this 
work only when he has carefully pondered its 
nature and its responsibilities, and after he has 
devoted his best powers to a thorough prepara- 
tion of himself for its high duties. Above all, let 
him be sure that his motives on entering the 
school-room are such as will be acceptable in the 
sight of God, when viewed by the light beaming 
out from His throne. 

" O ! let not then unskillful hands attempt 
To play the harp whose tones, whose living tones 
Axe left forever in the strings. Better far 
That heaven's lightnings blast his very soul, 
And sink it back to Chaos' lowest depths, 
Than knowingly, by word or deed, he send 
A blight upon the trusting mind of youth." 



CHAPTER III. 

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 



SECTION I.— A NEGLECTED PEAR-TREE. 

SOME years ago, while residing in the north- 
eastern part of Massachusetts, I was the 
owner of a small garden. I had taken much 
pains to improve the condition and appearance 
of the place. A woodbine had been carefully 
trained upon the front of the little homestead ; 
a fragrant honeysuckle, supported by a trellis, 
adorned the door-way; a moss-rose, a flowering 
almond, and the lily of the valley, mingled their 
fragrance in the breath of morn, — and never, in 
my estimation at least, did the sun shine upon a 
lovelier, happier spot. The morning hour was 
spent in "dressing and keeping" the garden. ' Its 
vines were daily watched and carefully trained ; 
its borders were free from weeds, and the plants 
expanded their leaves and opened their buds as 
if smiling at the approach of the morning sun. 
There were fruit-trees, too, which had been 
brought from far, and so carefully nurtured, that 
they were covered with blossoms, filling the air 
with their fragrance and awakening the fondest 
hopes of an abundant harvest. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 31 
Neglected pear-tree.— Pruning commenced. 

In one corner of this miniature paradise there 
was a hop-trellis ; and, in the midst of a bed of 
tansy hard by, stood a small, knotty, crooked pear- 
tree. It had stood there I know not how long. 
It was very diminutive in size ; but, like those 
cedars which one notices high up the mountain, 
just on the boundary between vegetation and 
eternal frost, it had every mark of the decrepi- 
tude of age. 

Why should this tree stand here so unsightly 
and unfruitful? Why had it escaped notice so 
long ? Its bark had become bound and cracked ; 
its leaves were small and curled ; and those, 
small as they were, were ready to be devoured 
by a host of caterpillars, whose pampered bodies 
were already grown to the length of an inch. 
The tendrils of the hop-vine had crept about its 
thorny limbs, and were weighing down its growth, 
while the tansy at its roots drank up the refresh- 
ing dew and shut out the genial ray. It was a 
neglected tree ! 

"Why may not this tree be pruned?" No 
sooner said, than the small saw was taken from 
its place and the work was commenced. Com- 
menced? It was hard to determine where to 
commence. Its knotty branches had grown thick 
and crooked, and there was scarcely space to get 
the saw between them. They all seemed to de- 
serve amputation, but then the tree would have 
no top. This and that limb were lopped off as 
the case seemed to demand. The task was nei- 



32 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

Disagreeable toil. — Graf ting of a Bartlet Pear. — Anxiety. 

ther easy nor pleasant. Sometimes a violent 
stroke would bring down upon my own head a 
shower of the filthy caterpillars ; again, the long- 
cherished garden coat — threadbare and faded as 
it was — got caught, and, before it could be dis- 
engaged, what an unsightly rent had been made ! 
With pain I toiled on, for one of the unlucky 
thorns had pierced my thumb ; and I might 
have been said to be working on the spur of the 
occasion ! 

The hop-vine, however, was removed from its 
boughs, the tansy and weeds from its roots, the 
scales and moss from its bark. The thorns were 
carefully pared from its limbs, and the caterpil- 
lars were all shaken from its leaves. The mold 
was loosened and enriched — and the sun shone 
that day upon a long neglected, but now a prom- 
ising tree. 

The time for grafting was not yet passed. 
One reputedly skilled in that art was called to 
put the new scion upon the old stock. The 
work was readily undertaken and speedily accom- 
plished, and the assurance was given that the 
Bartlet Pear — that prince among the fruits of 
New England — would one day be gathered from 
my neglected tree. 

With what interest I watched the buds of the 
scion, morning after morning, as the month grew 
warmer, and vegetation all around was " bursting 
into birth ! " With what delight did I greet the 
first opening of those buds, and how did I rejoice 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 33 
The pears ripen. — Chagrin and mortification. —A moral garden. 

as the young shoots put forth and grew into a 
fresh green top ! With tender solicitude I cher- 
ished this tree for two long summers ; and, on 
the opening of the third, my heart was gladdened 
with the sight of its first fruit blossoms. With 
care were the weeds excluded, the caterpillars 
exterminated, the hop-vine clipped, the bark 
rubbed and washed, the earth manured and wa- 
tered. The time of fruit arrived. The Bartlet 
pear was offered in our market — but my pears 
were not yet ripe 1 With anxious care they were 
watched till the frost bade the green leaves 
wither, and then they were carefully gathered 
and placed in the sunbeams within doors. They 
at length turned yellow, and looked fair to the 
sight and tempting to the taste ; and a few 
friends who had known their history, were in- 
vited to partake of them. They were brought 
forward, carefully arranged in the best dish the 
humble domicile afforded, and formally intro- 
duced as the first fruits of the "neglected tree." 
What was my chagrin and mortification, after all 
my pains and solicitude, after all my hopes and 
fond anticipations, to find they were miserable, 
tasteless — choke pears ! 

This pear-tree has set me to thinking. It has 
suggested that there is such a thing as a moral 
garden, in which there may be fair flowers, 
indeed, but also some neglected trees. The plants 
in this garden may suffer very much from neg- 
lect — from neglect of the gardener. It is deplor- 



34 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

Many neglected trees. — Infancy. 

v 

able to see how many crooked, unseemly branches 
shoot forth from some of these young trees, 
which early might have been trained to grow 
straight and smooth by the hand of cultivation. 
Many a youth, running on in his own way, in- 
dulging in deception and profanity, yielding to 
temptation and overborne by evil influences, pol- 
luting by his example, and wounding the hearts 
of his best friends as they yearn over him for 
good, has reminded me of my neglected tree, its 
caterpillars, its roughened bark, its hop-vine, its 
tansy bed, its cruel piercing thorns. And when 
I have seen such a youth brought under the in- 
fluence of the educator, and have witnessed the 
progress he has made and the intellectual promise 
he has given, I have also thought of my neglected 
tree. When, too, I have followed him to the years 
of maturity, and have found, as I have too often 
found, that he brings hot forth "the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness ", but that he disappoints 
all the fondly-cherished hopes of his friends — per- 
haps of his own teachers, because the best prin- 
ciples were not engrafted upon him, I again think 
of my neglected tree, and of the unskillful, per- 
haps dishonest gardener, who acted as its respon- 
sible educator. 

From the above as a text, several inferences 
might be drawn. 1. Education is necessary to 
develop the human soul. 2. Education should 
begin early. We have too many neglected trees. 
3. It should be right education. And 4. The 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 35 
Extent of a teacher's responsibility. 

educator should be a safe and an honest man ; 
else the education may be all wrong — may be 
worse, even, than the neglect. 

But especially we may infer that 



SECTION II.— THE TEACHER IS RESPONSIBLE. 

It is the object of the following remarks feebly 
to illustrate the extent of the teacher's responsi- 
bility. It must all along be borne in mind that 
he is not alone responsible for the results of edu- 
cation. The parent has an overwhelming respon- 
sibility, which he can never part with or transfer 
to another while he holds the relation of parent. 

But the teacher is responsible in a very high 
degree. An important interest is committed to 
his charge whenever a human being is placed 
under his guidance. By taking the position of 
the teacher, all the responsibility of the relation 
is voluntarily assumed ; and he is fearfully re- 
sponsible, not only for what he ctoes, but also for 
what he neglects to do. And it is a responsibility 
from which he can not escape. Even though he 
ma}r have thoughtlessly entered upon the relation 
of teacher, without a single glance at its obliga- 
tions ; or though, when reminded of them, he 
may laugh at the thought, and disclaim all idea 
of being thus seriously held to a fearful account 
— yet still the responsibility is on him. Just as 
true as it is a great thing to guide the mind 
aright, — just as true as it is a deplorable, nay, 



36 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Bodily health. 

fatal thing to lead it astray, so true is it that he 
who attempts the work, whether ignorant or skill- 
ful, whether thoughtless or serious, incurs all the 
responsibility of success or failure, — a responsi- 
bility he can never shake off as long as the hu- 
man soul is immortal, and men are accountable 
for such consequences of their acts as are capable 
of being foreseen. 

I. The teacher is in a degree responsible for 
the bodily health of the child. It is well estab- 
lished that the foundation of many serious dis- 
eases is laid in the school-room. These diseases 
come sometimes from a neglect of exercise ; 
sometimes from too long confinement in one 
position, or upon one study ; sometimes from 
over-excitement and over-study ; sometimes from 
breathing bad air ; sometimes from being 
kept too warm or too cold. Now the teacher 
should be an intelligent physiologist ; and from 
a knowledge of what the human system can 
bear, and what it can not, he is bound to be 
ever watchful, to guard against all those abuses 
from which our children so often suffer. Espe- 
cially should he be tremblingly alive to avert 
that excitability of the nervous system, the over- 
action of which is so fatal to the future happi- 
ness of the individual. And should he, by appeal- 
ing to the most exciting motives, encourage the 
delicate child to press on to grasp those subjects 
which are too great for its comprehension, and 
allow it to neglect exercise in the open air, in 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 37 
Laws of physical health. — Nervous excitement. 

order to task its feverish brain in the crowded 
and badly ventilated school-room ; and then, in a 
few days, be called to look upon the languishing 
sufferer upon a bed of exhaustion and pain — 
perhaps a bed of premature death, could he say, 
" I am not responsible " ? Parents and teachers 
often err in this. They are so eager to develop 
a precocious intellect, that they crush the casket 
in order to gratify a prurient desire to astonish 
the world with the brilliancy of the gem. Each 
is responsible for his share of this sin ; and the 
teacher especially, because by his education he 
should know better. 

The growing prevalence of myopia among 
school children should excite the watchful care 
of all teachers. Specialists have observed that 
cases of near-sight rapidly increase from the pri- 
mary grades upward ; and so common has this 
defect of the eye become, that it is now called a 
" school disease ". The causes acting within the 
school-room to induce this malformation of the 
eye are the following : Insufficient light, causing 
the pupil to bring the book too near the eye ; a 
stooping posture of the body, inducing congestion 
of the membranes of the eye ; typography that is 
"trying to the eye". In his "School and Indus- 
trial Hygiene," Mr. Lincoln states that a child 
with normal eyes ought to be able to read from 
a page like this, in a good light, at a distance of 
forty inches, and at all intervening distances 
down to four inches ; and that a child who can 



88 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Care of the eyes. — Order of study. 

not read under such conditions as far as fifteen 
inches off, should have his eyes examined by a 
competent oculist (p. 49). The best light is that 
which comes from above, and falls vertically 
upon the book. Though in most cases this mode 
of lighting is impracticable, it is a hint that the 
windows of school -rooms should be placed as 
high as possible. The worst light is that which 
falls in the face of the pupil, or that which, com- 
ing from the rear, throws a shadow on his book. 
In rooms of moderate width, the best light is 
that which falls over the left shoulder. 

II. The teaclier is mainly responsible for the 
intellectual growth of the child. This may be 
referred chiefly to the following heads : — 

1. The order of study. There is a natural 
order in the education of the child. The teacher 
should know this. If he presents the subjects 
out of this order, he is responsible for the injury. 
In general, the elements should be taught first. 
Those simple branches which the child first com- 
prehends, should first be presented. Reading, of 
course, must be one of the first ; though I think 
the day is not distant when an enlightened com- 
munity will not condemn the teacher, if, while 
teaching reading, he should call the child's atten- 
tion by oral instructions to such objects about 
him as he can comprehend, even though in doing 
this he should somewhat prolong the time of 
learning to read. It is indeed of little conse- 
quence that the child should read tuords simply ; 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 39 



Translation of thought. — Mental Arithmetic. 



and that teacher may be viewed as pursuing 
the order of nature, who so endeavors to develop 
the powers of observation and comparison, that 
words when learned shall be the vehicles of ideas. 
Whether the pupil is merely learning words, or 
is really gaining ideas, may be tested in a very 
simple and effective way : Require him to express 
the thought of the paragraph in his own ivords. 
If he can do this accurately, it is certain that he 
has comprehended the thought ; for he is able to 
separate it from the form of words employed by 
the author, and to embody it in a different form. 
This translation of thought should form an essen- 
tial part of every reading exercise ; expressive 
reading will then be a very simple thing. Read- 
ing proper, or the gaining of thought from the 
printed page, should be distinguished from elocu- 
tion, or the expression of thought. A rule for 
good teaching is, first make sure that the thought 
has been gained, then attend to its proper 
expression. 

Next to Reading and its inseparable com- 
panions — Spelling and Defining — I am inclined to 
recommend the study of Mental Arithmetic. The 
idea of Number is one of the earliest in the mind 
of the child. He can be early taught to count, 
and quite early to perform those operations which 
we call adding, subtracting, multiplying, and di- 
viding. This study at first needs no booh. The 
teacher should be thoroughly versed in " Colburn's 
Intellectual Arithmetic ", or its equivalent, and he 



40 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Recite without book.— Geography. 

can find enough, to interest the child. When the 
scholar has learned to read, and has attained the 
age of six or seven, he may be allowed a book in 
preparing his lesson, but never during the recita- 
tion. Those who have not tried this kind of 
mental discipline, will be astonished at the facility 
which the child acquires, for performing opera- 
tions that often puzzle the adult. Nor is it an un- 
important acquisition. None can tell its value but 
those who have experienced the advantage it gives 
them in future school exercises and in business, 
over those who have never had such training. 

Geography may come next to Mental Arith- 
metic. The child should have an idea of the re- 
lations of size, form, and space, as well as number, 
before commencing Geography. These, however, 
he acquires naturally at an early age ; and very 
thoroughly, if the teacher has taken a little pains 
to aid him on these points in the earliest stages 
of his progress. A map is a picture, and hence a 
child welcomes it. If it can be a map of some 
familiar object, as of his school -room, of the 
school district, of his father's orchard or farm, it 
becomes an object of great interest. A map of 
his town is very desirable, also of his county and 
his own State. Further detail will be deferred here, 
as it is only intended in this place to hint at the 
order of taking up the subjects. 

The purpose of geographical study may be 
stated to be, to form an adequate conception of 
the earth as the dwelling-place of man. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 41 



History. — Literature. — Other studies. 



History should go hand in hand with Geogra- 
phy. Perhaps no greater mistake is made than 
that of deferring History till one of the last things 
in the child's course. 

The purpose of historical study may be thus 
denned : To form an adequate conception of the 
most notable things done by the human race. 

Literature should hold a co-ordinate rank with 
Geography and History, its purpose being to give 
the pupil an adequate conception of the most 
notable things written by the tvisest and the best 
of the human race. These three subjects are 
entitled to be called the modern culture trivium. 

Writing may be early commenced with the 
pencil upon the slate, because it is a very useful 
exercise to the child in prosecuting many of his 
other studies. But writing with a pen may well 
be deferred till the child is ten years of age, when 
the muscles shall have acquired sufficient strength 
to grasp and guide it. 

Written Arithmetic may succeed the mental ; 
indeed, it may be practiced along with it. 

Composition — perhaps by another name, as De- 
scription — should be early commenced and very 
frequently practiced. The child can be early 
interested in this, and in this way he probably 
acquires a better knowledge of practical grammar 
than he could in any other. 

Grammar, in my opinion, as a study, should be 
one of the last of the common school branches to 
be taken up. It requires more maturity of mind 



42 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
How to study. — Not words, but thoughts. 

to understand its relations and dependencies than 
any other ; and that which is taught of grammar 
without such an understanding, is a mere smatter- 
ing of technical terms, by which the pupil is in- 
jured rather than improved. It may be said, that 
unless scholars commence this branch early, they 
never will have the opportunity to learn it. Then 
let it go unlearned ; for, as far as I have seen the 
world, I am satisfied that this early and superfi- 
cial teaching of a difficult subject is not only use- 
less, but positively injurious. How many there 
are who study grammar for years, and then are 
obliged to confess in after life, because "their 
speech bewray eth " them, that they never under- 
stood it ! How many, by the too early study of 
an intricate branch, make themselves think they 
understand it, and thus prevent the hope of any 
further advancement at the proper age ! Gram- 
mar, then, should not oe studied too early. 

That form of grammatical study known as 
Language Lessons, may be begun at an early 
age. The purpose of these lessons is to instruct 
the pupil in the correct use of language, both in 
speaking and in writing, not by precept and rule, 
but by practice. This is the proper introduction 
to grammar proper, or the formal study of lan- 
guage. At present, there is such a strong reac- 
tion from grammar to Language Lessons, that 
there is danger of losing sight of the high claims 
of the formal study of language, based on pars- 
ing, or the classification of words. The parsing 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 43 
How to study. — Not words, but thoughts. 

exercise, when properly conducted, is an invalua- 
ble means of mental discipline ; in the art of clas- 
sifying, and in reasoning on contingent matters, 
parsing is the logic of the xjrimary school. It is 
stated in objection to the study of formal gram- 
mar, that the rules of syntax so laboriously 
learned have but little effect in promoting accu- 
racy of speech. It is a fact of common observa- 
tion that an accurate knowledge of the proper 
uniformities of speech, is no absolute defense 
against a violation of these same uniformities ; 
but this merely proves how obstinate ingrained 
habit is. If the young heard only the authorized 
forms of speech, they would have no need, of the 
rules of formal grammar for purposes of guid- 
ance ; but since they are always in imminent 
danger of copying the incorrect forms of speech 
which they hear, they need a defense against 
this danger ; and the most available and the 
most effective is a knowledge of the much de- 
cried English Grammar. 

Of the manner of teaching all these branches, 
I shall have more to say in due time. At present, 
I have only noticed the order in which they 
should be taken up. This is a question of much 
consequence to the child, and the teacher is gen- 
erally responsible for it. He should, therefore, 
carefully consider this matter, that he may be 
able to decide aright. 

2. The manner of study. It is of quite as much 
importance how we study, as what we study. In- 



44 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

How to study. — Not words, but thoughts. 

deed, I have thought that much of the difference 
among men could be traced to their different 
habits of study, formed in youth. A large por- 
tion of our scholars study for the sake of prepar- 
ing to recite the lesson. They seem to have no 
idea of any object beyond recitation. The con- 
sequence is, they study mechanically. They en- 
deavor to remember phraseology rather than 
principles ; they study the booh, not the subject. 
Let any one enter our schools and see the schol- 
ars engaged in preparing their lessons. Scarcely 
one will be seen who is not repeating over and 
over again the words of the text, as if there was 
a saving charm in repetition. Observe the same 
scholars at recitation, and it is a struggle of the 
memory to recall the forms of words. The va- 
cant countenance too often indicates that they 
are words without meaning. This difficulty is 
very much increased, if the teacher is confined 
to the text-book during recitation ; and particu- 
larly if he relies mainly upon the printed ques- 
tions so often found at the bottom of the page. 

The scholar should be encouraged to study the 
subject ; and his book should be held merely as 
the instrument. "Books are but helps", is a 
good motto for every student. The teacher should 
often tell how the lesson should be learned. His 
precept in this matter will often be of use. Some 
scholars will learn a lesson in one tenth of the 
time required by others. Human life is too short 
to have any of it employed to disadvantage. The 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 45 



Books but helps. — Study objects. 



teacher, then, should inculcate such habits of 
study as are valuable ; and he should be particu- 
larly careful to break up, in the recitations, those 
habits which are so grossly mechanical. A child 
may almost be said to be educated, who has 
learned to study aright ; while one may have 
acquired in the mechanical way a great amount 
of knowledge, and yet have no profitable mental 
discipline. 

For this difference in children, as well as in 
men, the teacher is more responsible than any 
other person. Let him carefully consider this 
matter. 

3. Collateral study. Books to be sure are to 
be studied, and studied chiefly, in most of our 
schools. But there is much for the teacher to do 
toward the growth of the mind, which is not to be 
found in the school-books ; and it is the practical 
recognition of this fact which constitutes the 
great difference in teachers. Truth, in whatever 
department, is open to the faithful teacher. And 
there is such a thing, even in the present gener- 
ation, as " opening the eyes of the blind ", to 
discover things new and old, in nature, in the 
arts, in history, in the relation of things. With- 
out diminishing in the least the progress of the 
young in study, their powers of observation may 
be cultivated, their perception quickened, their 
relish for the acquisition of knowledge indefinitely 
increased, by the instrumentality of the teacher. 
This must, of course, be done adroitly. There is 



46 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Teaching to observe. — Mind not to be crammed. 

such a thing as excessively cramming the mind 
of a child, till he loathes every thing in the way 
of acquisition. There is such a thing, too, as 
exciting an all-pervading interest in a group of 
children, so that the scholar shall welcome the 
return of school-hours, and, by his cheerful step 
and animated eye, as he seeks the school-house, 
disclaim as false, when applied to him, the lan- 
guage of the poet, who described the school-boy 
of his darker day, — 

" with his satchel, 
And shining morning face, creeping, like snail, 
Unwillingly to school." 

The teacher, who is responsible for such a re- 
sult, should take care to store his own mind with- 
the material, and exercise the ingenuity, to do 
that which is of so much consequence to the 
scholar. 

The desire to interest pupils in the common 
things about them, to call their observing powers 
into systematic exercise, and to cultivate their 
use of language, led to an elaborate system of Ob- 
ject Lessons ; but it now seems to be the verdict 
of experience that this formal study of objects 
has not proved of high value. The teacher who 
accepts the lesson on the ear of corn, and the 
elm-tree, given in the chapter on "Waking up 
Mind", as types of this kind of instruction, will 
stand on safe ground. 

III. The teacher is in a degree responsible for 
the moral" training of the child. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 47 
Moral training neglected. — Precept. — Example. 

I say in a degree, because it is confessed that 
in this matter very much likewise depends upon 
parental influence. 

This education of the heart is confessedly too 
much neglected in all our schools. It has often 
been remarked that "knowledge is power", and 
as truly that "knowledge without principle to 
regulate it may make a man a powerful villain " ! 
It is all-important that our youth should early 
receive such moral training as shall make it safe 
to give them knowledge. Very much of this 
work must devolve upon the teacher ; or rather, 
when he undertakes to teach, he assumes the 
responsibility of doing or of neglecting this work. 

The precept of the teacher may do much to- 
ward teaching the child his duty to God, to him- 
self, and to his fellow-beings. But it is not mainly 
by precept that this is to be done. Sermons and 
homilies are but little heeded in the school-room ; 
and unless the teacher has some, other mode of 
reaching the feelings and the conscience, he may 
despair of being successful in moral training. 

The teacher should be well versed in human 
nature. . He should know the power of conscience 
and the means of reaching it. He should himself 
have deep principle. His example in every thing 
before his school should be pure, flowing out from 
the purity of his soul. He should ever manifest 
the tenderest regard to the law of right and of 
love. He should never violate his own sense of 
justice, nor outrage that of his pupils. Such a 



48 EESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHEE. 



Conscience can be cultivated. —How? 



man teaches by his example. He is a "living 
epistle, known and read of all." He teaches, as 
he goes in and out before the school, as words 
can never teach. 

The moral feelings of children are capable of 
systematic and successful cultivation. Our mus- 
cles acquire strength by use ; it is so with our 
intellectual and moral faculties. We educate the 
power of calculation by continued practice, so 
that the proficient adds the long column of fig- 
ures almost with the rapidity of sight, and with 
infallible accuracy. So with the moral feelings. 
"The more frequently we use our conscience," 
says Dr. Wayland, "in judging between actions, 
as right and wrong, the more easily shall we 
learn to judge correctly concerning them. He 
who, before every action, will deliberately ask 
himself, ' Is this right or wrong ' ? will seldom 
mistake what is his duty. And children may do 
this as well as grown persons." Let the teacher 
appeal as often as may be to the pupil's con- 
science. In a thousand ways can this be done, 
and it is a duty the faithful teacher owes to his 
scholars. 

By such methods of cultivating the conscience 
as the judicious teacher may devise, and by his 
own pure example, what may he not accomplish ? 
If he loves the truth, and ever speaks the truth ; 
if he is ever frank and sincere ; if, in a word, he 
shows that he has a tender conscience in all 
things, and that he always refers to it for its 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 49 
Evil example to be dreaded. —Consequences. 

approval in all his acts, — what an influence does 
he exert upon the impressible minds under his 
guidance ! How those children will observe his 
consistent course ; and, though they may not 
speak of it, how great will be its silent power 
upon the formation of their characters ! And in 
future years, when they ripen into maturity, how 
will they remember and bless the example they 
shall have found so safe and salutary. 

Responsibility in this matter can not be avoided. 
The teacher by his example does teach, for good 
or for evil, whether he will or not. Indifference 
will not excuse him ; for when most indifferent, 
he is not less accountable. And if his example 
be pernicious, as too often, even yet, the example 
of the teacher is ; if he indulges in outbreaks of 
passion, or wanders in the mazes of deceitful- 
ness ; if the blasphemous oath pollutes his tongue, 
or the obscene jest poisons his breath ; if he 
trifles with the feelings or the rights of others, 
and habitually violates his own conscience, — 
what a blighting influence is his for all coming 
time ! 

With all th§ attachment which young pupils 
will cherish, even toward a bad teacher, and with 
all the confidence they will respose in him, who 
can describe the mischief which he can accom- 
plish in one short term? The school is no place 
for a man without principle ; I repeat, the school 
is no place for a man without principle. Let 
such a man seek a livelihood anywhere else ; or, 



50 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

Trample not on the mind. — Religion our glory — our hope. 

failing to gain it by other means, let starvation 
seize the body, and send the soul back to its 
Maker as it is, rather than he should incur the 
fearful guilt of poisoning youthful minds and 
dragging them down to his own pitiable level. 
If there can be one sin greater than another, on 
which heaven frowns with more awful displeas- 
ure, it is that of leading the young into princi- 
ples of error, and the debasing practices of vice. 

"O, "woe to those who trample on the mind, 
That deathless thing 1 They know not what they do, 
Nor what they deal with. Man, perchance, may bind 
The flower his step hath bruised ; or light anew 
The torch he quenches; or to music wind 
Again the lyre-string from his touch that flew; — 
But for the soul, O, tremble and beware 
To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there ! " 

Let then the teacher study well his motives 
when he enters this profession, and so let him 
meet his responsibility in this matter as to secure 
the approval of his own conscience and his God. 

IV. The teacher is to some extent responsible 
for the religious training of the young. 

"We live in a Christian land. It is our glory, if 
not our boast, that we have descended from an 
ancestry that feared God and reverenced his 
word. Very justly we attribute our superiority 
as a people, over those who dwell in the darker 
portions of the world, to our purer faith derived 
from that precious fountain of truth — the Bible. 
Very justly, too, does the true patriot and philan- 
thropist rely upon our faith and practice as a 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 51 
Avoid sectarianism. — Common ground. 

Christian people, for the permanence of our free 
institutions and our unequaled social privileges. 

If we are so much indebted, then, to the Chris- 
tian religion for what we are, and so much de- 
pendent upon its life-giving truths for what we 
may hope to be, — how important is it that all our 
youth should be nurtured under its influences ! 

When I say religious training, I do not mean 
sectarianism. In our public schools, supported at 
the public expense, and in which the children of 
all denominations meet for instruction, I do not 
think that any man has a right to crowd his own 
peculiar notions of theology upon all, whether 
they are acceptable or not. Yet there is common 
ground which he can occupy, and to which no rea- 
sonable man can object. He can teach a reverence 
for the Supreme Being, a reverence for his Holy 
Word, for the influences of his Spirit, for the 
character and teachings of the Savior, and for 
the momentous concerns of eternity. He can 
teach the evil of sin in the sight of God, and the 
awful consequences of it upon the individual. 
He can teach the duty of repentance, and the 
privilege of forgiveness. He can teach our duty 
to worship God, to obey his laws, to seek the 
guidance of his spirit, and the salvation by his 
Son. He can illustrate the blessedness of the 
divine life, the beauty of holiness, and the joyful 
hope of heaven ; — and to all this no reasonable 
man will be found to object, so long as it is done 
in a truly Christian spirit. 



52 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Sectarianism for the pulpit. — Danger of skepticism. 

If not in express words, most certainly his life 
and example should teach this. Man is a religious 
being. The religious principle should be early 
cultivated. It should be safely and carefully 
cultivated ; and as this cultivation is too often 
entirely neglected by parents, unless it is at- 
tempted by the teacher, in many cases, it will 
never be effected at all. 

Of course all those points which separate the 
community into sects, must be left to the family, 
the Sabbath-school, and the pulpit. The teacher is 
responsible for his honesty in this matter. While 
he has no right to lord it over the private con- 
science of any one, he is inexcusable, if, believing 
the great truths of the Bible, he puts them away 
as if they concerned him not. They should com- 
mand his faith and govern his conduct ; and their 
claims upon the young should not be disowned. 

At any rate, the teacher should be careful that 
his teaching and his example do not prejudice the 
youthful mind against these truths. It is a hazard- 
ous thing for a man to be skeptical by himself, 
even when he locks his opinions up in the secrecy 
of his own bosom : how great then is the responsi- 
bility of teaching the young to look lightly upon 
the only book that holds out to us the faith of 
immortality, and opens to us the hope of heaven ! 
Let the teacher well consider this matter, and take 
heed that his teaching shall never lead one child 
of earth away from his heavenly Father, or from 
the rest of the righteous in the home of the blest. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 53 



Inexcusable indifference.— Wb.o is sufficient? 



In view of what has been said, the young can- 
didate for the teacher's office, almost in despair 
of success, may exclaim, "Who is sufficient for 
these things?" "Who can meet and sustain such 
responsibility?" My answer is, the true inquirer 
after duty will not go astray. He is insufficient 
for these things, who is self-confident, who has 
not yet learned his own weakness, who has never 
found out his own faults, and who rushes to this 
great work, as the unheeding " horse rusheth into 
the battle ", not knowing whither he goeth. Alas, 
how many there are who enter this profession 
without the exercise of a single thought of the 
responsibleness of the position, or of any of the 
great questions which must, in their schools, for 
the first time be presented for their decision ! 
How many there are who never reflect upon the 
influence of their example before the young, and 
are scarcely conscious that their example is of 
any consequence! Such, in the .highest sense, 
will fail of success. How can they be expected 
to go right, where there is only one right way, 
but a thousand wrong? Let such persons pause 
and consider, before they assume responsibilities 
which they can neither discharge nor evade. Let 
such ask with deep solicitude, "Who is sufficient 
for these things?" 

But to the young person really desirous of im- 
provement ; to him who has taken the first and 
important step toward knowledge, by making the 
discovery that every thing is not already known ; 



54 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

The honest inquirer may hope. — "Visit to the prison. 

to him who sees beforehand that there are real 
difficulties in this profession, and who is not too 
proud or self -conceited to feel the need of special 
preparation to meet them ; to him who has some 
idea of the power of example in the educator, 
and who desires most of all things that his char- 
acter shall be so pure as to render his example 
safe ; to him who has discovered that there are 
some deep mysteries in human nature, and that 
they are only to be fathomed by careful study ; 
to him who really feels that a great thing is to 
be done, and who has the sincere desire to prepare 
himself to do it aright ; to him, in short, who has 
the true spirit of the teacher, — I may say, there 
is nothing to fear. An honest mind, with the 
requisite industry, is sufficient for these things. 



SECTION III.— THE AUBURN STATE PRISON. 

During my visit at Auburn in the autumn of 
1845, 1 was invited by a friend to visit the prison, 
in which at that time were confined between six 
and seven hundred convicts. I was first taken 
through the various workshops, where the utmost 
neatness and order prevailed. As I passed along, 
my eye rested upon one after another of the con- 
victs, I confess, with a feeling of surprise. There 
were many good-looking men. If, instead of their 
parti-colored dress, they could have been clothed 
in the citizen's garb, I should have thought them 
as good in appearance as laboring men in general. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 55 

Neatness and order.— Library.— Wyatt the murderer. 

And when, to their good appearance, was added 
their attention to their work, their ingenuity, and 
the neatness of their work-rooms, my own mind 
began to press the inquiry, Wliy are these men 
here ? It was the afternoon of Saturday. Many 
of them had completed their allotted work for 
the week, and with happy faces were performing 
the customary ablutions preparatory to the Sab- 
bath. Passing on, we came to the library, a col- 
lection of suitable books for the convicts, which 
are given out as a reward for diligence to those 
who have seasonably and faithfully performed 
their labor. Here were many who had come to 
take their books. Their faces beamed with delight 
as they each bore away the desired volume, just 
as I had seen the faces of the happy and the free 
do before. Why are these men here ? was again 
pressed upon me ; — why are these men here f 

At this time, the famous Wyatt, since executed 
upon the gallows for his crime, was in solitary 
confinement, awaiting his trial for the murder of 
Gordon, a fellow-prisoner. I was permitted to 
enter his room. Chained to the floor, he was re- 
clining upon his mattress in the middle of his 
apartment. As I approached him, his large black 
eye met mine. He was a handsome man. His 
head was well developed, his long black hair hung 
upon his neck, and his eye was one of the most 
intelligent I ever beheld. Had I seen him in the 
Senate among great men, — had I seen him in a 
school of philosophers, or a brotherhood of poets, 



56 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 
Sabbath morn.— Worship.— Singing.— Prayer. 

I should probably have selected him as the most 
remarkable man among them all, without sus- 
pecting his distinction to be a distinction of vil- 
lainy. Why is that man here? thought I, as I 
turned away to leave him to his dreadful solitude. 

The morrow was the Sabbath. I could not 
repress my desire to see the convicts brought to- 
gether for worship. At the hour of nine, I entered 
their chapel and found them all seated in silence. 
I was able to see most of the faces of this inter- 
esting congregation. It was by no means the 
worst looking congregation I had ever seen. There 
were evidently bad men there ; but what congre- 
gation of free men does not present some such ? 

They awaited in silence the commencement of 
the service. When the morning hymn was read, 
they joined in the song, the chorister being a 
colored man of their own number. They sung as 
other congregations sing, and my voice joined 
with theirs. The Scripture was read. They gave 
a respectful attention. The prayer was begun. 
Some bowed in apparent reverence at the com- 
mencement. Others sat erect, and two or three 
of these appeared to be the hardened sons of 
crime. The chaplain's voice was of a deep, per- 
haps I should say, a fatherly tone, and he seemed 
to have the Father's spirit. He prayed for these 
"wayward ones", who were deprived of their 
liberty for their offenses, but whom God would 
welcome to his throne of mercy. He prayed for 
their homes, and for their friends who this day 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 57 
Deep feeling.— Speculation.— Their teachers. 

would send their thoughts hither in remembrance 
of those in bonds. He alluded to the scenes of 
their childhood, the solicitude of their early friends, 
and the affection of their parents. When the 
words home, friend, childhood, were heard, several 
of those sturdy sons of crime and wretchedness 
instinctively bowed their heads and concealed 
their faces in their hands ; and, as a father's bless- 
ing and a mother's love were alluded to, more than 
one of these outcasts from society, were observed 
to dash the scalding tear from the eye. These 
men feel like other men, — why are they here ? was 
again the thought which forced itself upon my 
mind ; and while the chaplain proceeded to his 
sermon, in the midst of the silence that pervaded 
the room, my mind ran back to their educators. 
Once these men were children like others. They 
had feelings like other children, affection, rever- 
ence, teachableness, conscience, — why are they 
here ? Some, very likely, on account of their ex- 
traordinary perversity ; but most because they 
had a wrong education. More than half, undoubt- 
edly, have violated the laws of their country not 
from extraordinary viciousness, but from the 
iveakness of their moral principle. Tempted just 
like other and better men, they fell, because in 
early childhood no one had cultivated and 
strengthened the conscience God had given them. 
I am not disposed to excuse the vices of men, 
nor to screen them from merited punishment ; 
neither do I worship a "painted morality", based 



58 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 

View to the final Judgment. 

solely upon education, thus leaving nothing for 
the religion of the Bible to accomplish by purify- 
ing the heart, that fountain of wickedness : yet 
how many of these men might have been saved 
to society ; how many of them have powers which, 
under different training, might have adorned and 
blessed their race ; how many of them may date 
their fall to the evil influence and poisonous ex- 
ample of some guide of their childhood, some 
recreant teacher of their early days, — Gfod only 
knows ! But what a responsibility still rests upon 
the head of any such teacher, if he did not know, 
or did not try to know, the avenue to their hearts ; 
if he did not feel, or try to feel, the worth of 
moral principle to these very fallen ones ! And 
what would be his feelings if he could look back 
through the distant days of the past, and count 
up exactly the measure of his own faithfulness 
and his own neglect? This, the all-seeing eye 
alone can do, — this, He who looketh upon the 
heart ever does ! 

Teachers, go forth, then, conscious of your 
responsibility to your pupils, conscious of your 
accountability to God, go forth and teach this 
people ; and endeavor so to teach, that when 
you meet your pupils, not in the walks of life 
merely, not, perhaps, in the Auburn Prison, not, 
indeed, upon the shores of time, but at the final 
Judgment, where you must meet them all, you 
may be able to give a good account of the 
influence which you have exerted over mind. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEACHER. 59 
Study to know and to do. 

As it may then be forever too late to correct 
your errors and efface any injury done, study 
now to act the part of wisdom and the part 
of love. 

Study the human heart by studying the work- 
ings of your own ; seek carefully the avenues 
to the affections ; study those higher motives 
which elevate and ennoble the soul ; cultivate 
that purity which shall allure the wayward, by 
bright example, from the paths of error ; imbue 
your own souls with the love of teaching and 
the greatness of your work ; rely not alone upon 
yourselves, as if by your own wisdom and might 
you could do this great thing ; but seek that di- 
rection which our heavenly Father never with- 
holds from the honest inquirer after his guid- 
ance, — and though the teacher's work is, and 
ever must be, attended with overwhelming re- 
sponsibility, YOU WILL BE SUFFICIENT FOR THESE 
THINGS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PEESONAL HABITS O.F THE TEACHEE. 

THE importance of correct habits to any 
individual can not be overrated. The influ- 
ence of the teacher is so great upon the chil- 
dren under his care, either for good or evil, 
that it is of the utmost importance to them, as 
well as to himself, that his habits should be 
unexceptionable. It is the teacher's sphere to 
improve the community in which he moves, 
not only in learning, but in morals and man- 
ners ; in every thing that is " lovely and of 
good report". This he may do partly by pre- 
cept, — but very much by example. He teaches, 
wherever he is. His manners, his appearance, 
his character, are all the subject of observation, 
and to a great extent, of imitation, by the 
young in his district. He is observed not only 
in the school, but in the family, in the social 
gathering, and in the religious meeting. How 
desirable, then, that he should be a model in all 
things ! 

Man has been said to be a "bundle of habits" ; 
and it has been as pithily remarked : " Happy 
is the man whose habits are his friends ". It 



PEKSONAL HABITS. 61 

Cleanliness. — Ablution. 

were well if all persons, before they become 
teachers, Would attend carefully to the formation 
of their personal habits. This, unhappily, is not 
always done, — and therefore I shall make no 
apology for introducing in this place some very 
plain remarks on what I deem the essentials 
among the habits of the teacher. 

1. Neatness. This implies cleanliness of the 
person. If some who assume to teach were not 
proverbial for their slovenliness, I would not 
dwell on this point. On this point, however, I 
must be allowed great plainness of speech, even 
at the expense of incurring the charge of excess- 
ive nicety; for it is by attending to a, few little 
things that one becomes a strictly neat person. 
The morning ablution, then, should never be 
omitted ; and the comb for the hair, and brush 
for the clothes should always be called into 
requisition before the teacher presents himself 
to the family, or to his school. .Every teacher 
would very much promote his own health by 
washing the whole surface of the body every 
morning in cold water. This is now done by 
very many of the most enlightened teachers, as 
well as others. When physiology is better under- 
stood, this practice will be far more general. 
To no class of persons is it more essential than 
to the teacher ; for on account of his confine- 
ment, often in an unventilated room, with half 
a hundred children during the day, very much 
more is demanded of the exhalents in him than 



62 PEKS0NAL HABITS 

The teeth. —The nails. — The dress. 

in others. His only safety is in a healthy action 
of the skin. 

The teeth should be attended to. A brush and 
clean water have saved many a set of teeth. It is 
bad enough to witness the deplorable neglect 
of these important organs so prevalent in the 
community ; but it is extremely mortifying to 
see a filthy set of teeth in the mouth of the 
teacher of our youth. The nails, too, I am sorry 
to say, are often neglected by some of our teach- 
ers, till their ebony tips are any thing but orna- 
mental. This matter is made worse, when, in 
the presence of the family or of the school, the 
penknife is brought into requisition to remove 
that which should have received attention at the 
time of washing, in the morning. The teacher 
should remember that it is a vulgar habit to 
pare or clean the nails while in the presence of 
others, and especially during conversation with 
them. 

The teacher should be neat in his dress. I 
do not urge that his dress should be expensive. 
His income ordinarily will not admit of this. 
He may wear a very plain dress ; nor should it 
be any way singular in its fashion. All I ask 
is, that his clothing should be in good taste., and 
always clean. A slovenly dress, covered with 
dust, or spotted with grease, is never so much 
out of its proper place, as when it clothes the 
teacher. 

While upon this subject I may be indulged in 



OF THE TEACHER. 63 

Tobacco. — Order, system. 

a word or two upon the use of tobacco by the 
teacher. It is quite a puzzle to me to tell why 
any man but a Turk, who may lawfully dream 
away half his existence over the fumes of this 
filthy narcotic, should ever use it. Even if there 
were nothing wrong in the use of unnatural 
stimulants themselves, the filthiness of tobacco 
is enough to condemn it among teachers, espe- 
cially in the form of chewing. It is certainly 
worth while to ask whether there is not some 
moral delinquency in teaching this practice to 
the young, while it is admitted, by nearly all 
who have fallen into the habit, to be an evil, 
and one from which they would desire to be 
delivered. At any rate, I hope the time is com- 
ing when the good taste of teachers, and a re- 
gard for personal neatness and the comfort of 
others, shall present motives sufficiently strong 
to induce them to break away from a practice 
at once so unreasonable and so disgusting. 

2. Order. In this place I refer to that system 
and regularity so desirable in every teacher. 
He should practice it in his room at his board- 
ing-house. Every thing should have its place. 
His books, his clothing, should all be arranged 
with regard to this principle. The same habit 
should go with him to the school-room. His 
desk there should be a pattern of orderly ar- 
rangement. Practicing this himself, he may with 
propriety insist upon it in his pupils. It is of 
great moment to the teacher that, when he de- 



64 PERSONAL HABITS 

Courtesy. — Coarseness. — Profanity. 

mands order and arrangement among his pupils, 
they can not appeal to any breach of it in his 
own practice. 

3. Courtesy. The teacher should ever be cour- 
teous, both in his language and in his manners. 
Courtesy of language may imply a freedom from 
all coarseness. There is a kind of communi- 
cation, used among boatmen and hangers-on at 
bar-rooms, which should find no place in the 
teacher's vocabulary. All vulgar jesting, all dou- 
ble-entendres, all low allusions, should be forever 
excluded from his mouth. And profanity — can 
it be necessary that I should speak of this as 
among the habits of the teacher ? Yes, it is even 
so. Such is the want of moral sense in the com- 
munity, that men are still employed in some dis- 
tricts whose ordinary conversation is poisoned 
with the breath of blasphemy ; ay, and even the 
walls of the school-room resound to undisguised 
oaths ! I can not find words to express my aston- 
ishment at the indifference of parents, or at the 
recklessness of teachers, wherever I know such 
cases to exist. 

Speaking of the language of the teacher, I 
might urge also that it should be both pure and ac- 
curate. Pure as distinguished from all those cant 
phrases and provincialisms which amuse the vul- 
gar in certain localities ; and accurate as to the 
terms used to express his meaning. As the teacher 
teaches in this, as in every thing, by example as 
well as by precept, he should be very careful to 



OF THE TEACHER. 65 

Courtesy of manner. — Politeness. 

acquire an unexceptionable use of our language, 
and never deviate from it in the hearing of his 
pupils or elsewhere. 

There is a courtesy of manner, also, which 
should characterize the teacher. This is not that 
ridiculous obsequiousness which some persons as- 
sume, when they would gain the good opinion of 
others. It is true politeness. By politeness I do 
not mean any particular form of words, nor any 
prescribed or prescribable mode of action. It 
does not consist in bowing according to any ap- 
proved plan, nor in a compliance simply with 
the formulas of etiquette in the fashionable world. 
True politeness is founded in benevolence. Its 
law is embodied in the golden rule of the Sav- 
ior: — "Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them." It is the ex- 
ercise of real kindness. It entertains a just 
regard for the feelings of others, and seeks to do 
for them what would make them really happy. 

The teacher should possess this quality. When- 
ever he meets a child, it should be with the looks 
and words of kindness. Whenever he receives 
any token of regard from a pupil, he should ac- 
knowledge it in the true spirit of politeness. 
Whenever he meets a pupil in the street, or in a 
public place, he should cordially recognize him. 
In this way and a thousand others, which, if he 
have the right spirit, will cost him nothing, he 
will cultivate true courtesy in his pupils. He can 
do it in this way more effectually than he can 



66 PERSONAL HABITS 

Good manners may be inculcated. 

by formally lecturing upon the subject. True 
politeness will always win its true reciprocation. 
Two teachers were once walking together in the 
streets of a large town in New England. Several 
lads whom they met on the sidewalk, raised their 
caps as they exchanged the common salutations 
with one of the teachers. "What boys are these 
that pay you such attention as they pass?" in- 
quired the other. "They are my scholars," an- 
swered his friend. " Your scholars ! Why, how 
do you teach them to be so very polite ? Mine 
are pretty sure never to look at me ; and gen- 
erally they take care to be on the other side of 
the street." " I am unable to tell," said his friend ; 
" I never say any thing about it. I usually bow to 
them, and they are as ready to bow to me." The 
whole secret consisted in this teacher's meeting 
his pupils in the spirit of kindness. 

I would not, however, discourage a teacher 
from actually inculcating good manners by pre- 
cept. It should indeed be done. The manners of 
pupils are too much neglected in most of our 
schools, and, I am sorry to say, in most of our 
families. Our youth are growing up with all the 
independence of sturdy young republicans, — and, 
in their pride of freedom from governmental re- 
straint, they sometimes show a want of respect 
for their seniors and superiors, which is quite 
mortifying to all lovers of propriety. It is the 
teacher's province to counteract this; and in 
order to do it well, he should possess the 



OF THE TEACHEE. 67 

The commercial value of politeness. 

virtue of true courtesy, both in theory and 
practice. 

The law of good manners and politeness is the 
duty of being kind and agreeable to others. By 
means of this test, pupils may be made to dis- 
criminate between rudeness and politeness, and 
so to form an ideal of conduct. Cases in illustra- 
tion may be cited by the teacher and discussed 
by the pupils, such as boisterous conversation in 
public places, smoking in cars where ladies are 
sitting, whispering and giggling during concerts 
or lectures, etc. 

The young should be shown the commercial 
value of politeness, and taught that nothing pays 
better in the conduct of business than uniform 
courtesy to all with whom we have dealings. I 
once reached a town at night, and made my way 
to a hotel for refreshment and rest. It was with 
no little difficulty that I finally gained the ear of 
the clerk, who graciously permitted me to register 
my name. The next night I sought the hospitali- 
ties of another hotel. The clerk spied me from 
afar, took my hand -baggage, promptly ordered a 
supper, and conducted me to one of his best 
rooms. He seemed to have been awaiting my 
arrival ! I would go many miles to shun the first 
place, and as many to gain the second. The dif- 
ference in the two cases was that between' rude- 
ness and courtesy. We patronize the tradesman 
who treats us kindly and courteously ; and we 
instinctively shun one who is rude and ill-natured. 



68 PERSONAL HABITS 

Punctuality.— Dismiss punctually. 

Punctuality. This, as a habit, is essential to the 
teacher. He should be punctual in every thing. 
He should always be present at or before the 
time for opening the school. A teacher who goes 
late to school once a week, or even once a month, 
can not very well enforce the punctual attendance 
of his pupils. I once knew a man who, for seven 
long years, was never late at school a single 
minute, and seldom did he fail to reach his place 
more than five minutes before the time. I never 
knew but one such. I have known scores who 
were frequently tardy, and sometimes by the space 
of a wliole hour ! 

A teacher should be as punctual in dismissing 
as in opening his school. I know that some make 
a virtue of keeping their schools beyond the regu- 
lar hours. I have always considered this a very 
questionable virtue. If a teacher wishes to stay 
beyond his time, it should be either with delin- 
quents, who have some lessons to make up, or 
with those who voluntarily remain. But, after 
all, if he has been strictly punctual to the hours 
assigned for his various duties in school, there 
will scarcely be the necessity for him, or any of 
his pupils, to remain beyond the time for dismis- 
sion ; and, as a general rule, a regard both for his 
own health and theirs should forbid this. It is 
better to work diligently while one does work, and 
not to protract the time of labor, so as to destroy 
one's energy for to-morrow. 

This habit of punctuality should run through 



OF THE TEACHER. 69 

Regular study.— Time for it. 

every thing. He should be punctual at all en- 
gagements ; he should be studiously so in all the 
detail of school exercises ; he should be so at his 
meals, at his private studies, at his hour of retir- 
ing at night and of rising in the morning, and 
also at his exercise and recreation. This is neces- 
sary to a truly exemplary character, and it is 
equally as necessary to good health. 

5. Habits of study. Unless the teacher takes 
care to furnish his own mind, he will soon find 
his present stock of knowledge, however liberal 
that may be, fading from his memory and becom- 
ing unavailable. To prevent this, and to keep 
along with every improvement, he should regu- 
larly pursue a course of study. I say regularly ; 
for in order to accomplish any thing really de- 
sirable, he must do something every day. By 
strict system in all his arrangements, he may 
find time to do it ; and whenever I am told by a 
teacher that he can not find time to study, I 
always infer that there is a want of order in his 
arrangements, or a want of punctuality in the 
observance of that order. Human life, indeed, is 
short ; but most men still further abridge the 
period allotted to them, by a disregard of system. 



What has now been said, upon the teacher's 
spirit, the teacher's responsibility, and the teach- 
er's personal habits, will embody, perhaps, my 
views upon the character of the individual, who 



70 PERSONAL HABITS. 

A high standard.— Excelsior I 

may be encouraged to engage in the work of 
teaching. JSTor do I think the requirements in 
this department have been overstated. I know, 
indeed,* that too many exercise the teacher's 
functions without the teacher's spirit as here de- 
scribed, and without the sense of responsibility 
here insisted on, and with habits entirely incon- 
sistent with those here required. But this does 
not prove that such teachers have chosen the 
right calling, or that the children under their 
care are under safe and proper guidance. It 
proves, rather, that parents and school officers 
have too often neglected to be vigilant, or that 
suitable teachers could not be had. 

Let none think of lowering the standard to 
what has been, or what may even now be, that 
of a majority of those who are engaged in this 
profession. Every young teacher's eye should be 
directed to the very best model in this work ; 
and he should never be satisfied with bare medi- 
ocrity. Excelsior, the motto of the Empire State, 
may well be the motto of the young teacher. 



CHAPTER Y. 

LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS OF THE TEACHER. 

I AM now about to enter an extensive field. 
Since the teacher is to be the life of the 
school, it is of great consequence that he have 
within him the means of sustaining life. 

As the statutes in many of the states prescribe 
the minimum of attainment for the teacher, I 
might, perhaps, spare myself the labor of writing 
on this point. Yet in a thorough work on the 
Theory and Practice of Teaching, this very prop- 
erly comes under consideration. 

The profession of teaching is advancing. The 
present standard of acquirement demanded of 
the teacher, excludes many who were considered 
quite respectable in their vocation ten years ago. 
This may well be so ; for within that time quite 
an advance has been made in the compensation 
offered to teachers. It is but reasonable that 
acquirement should keep pace with the reward 
of it. Indeed, the talent and attainment brought 
into the field must always be in advance of the 
rate of compensation. The people must be first 
convinced that teachers are better than they 
were years ago, and then they will be ready to 



72 LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS 

What a teacher ought to know. 

reward them. In Massachusetts, according to 
statistics in the possession of the Hon. Horace 
Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, the 
compensation of teachers has advanced thirty- 
three per cent, within ten years ; nor is it reason- 
able to suppose that this advance has been made 
independent of any improvement among the 
teachers. Their system of supervision has in- 
creased in strictness, during this time, in an equal 
ratio ; and many teachers, who were entirely in- 
competent for their places, have thus been driven 
to other employments. The course is still onward ; 
and the time is not far distant when the people 
will demand still more thorough teachers for the 
common schools, and they will find it to their 
interest to pay for them. 

Under these circumstances, it will not be my 
design to give the very lowest qualifications for 
a teacher at present. I shall aim to describe 
those which a teacher ought to possess, in order 
to command, for some time to come, the respect 
of the enlightened part of the community. I will 
not say that a man, with less attainment than 
I shall describe, may not keep a good school ; I 
have no doubt that many do. Yet if our profes- 
sion is to be really respectable, and truly deserv- 
ing of the regard of an enlightened people, we 
must have a still higher standard of qualification 
than I shall now insist on. The following is 
a list of the studies of which every teacher 
should have a competent knowledge. I add also 



OF THE TEACHER. 73 

Orthography.— Our alphabet. 

to each such word of comment as appears to be 
necessary. 

1. Orthography. This implies something more 
than mere spelling. Spelling is certainly indis- 
pensable. No person should ever think of teach- 
ing who is not an accurate speller. But the 
nature and powers of letters should also be mas- 
tered. We have in our language about forty 
elementary sounds ; yet we have but twenty-six 
characters to represent them. Our alphabet is 
therefore imperfect. This imperfection is aug- 
mented by the fact that several of the letters 
are employed each to represent several different 
sounds. In other cases, two letters combined 
represent the element. There are also letters, as 
c, q, and x, which have no sound that is not fully 
represented by other letters. Then a very large 
number of our letters are silent in certain posi- 
tions, while they are fully sounded in others. It 
were much to be desired that we might have a 
perfect alphabet — that is, as many characters as 
we have elementary sounds — and that each letter 
should have but one sound. For the present this 
can not be ; and the present generation of teach- 
ers, at least, will have to teach our present 
orthography. Those sj^stems of orthography are 
much to be preferred which begin with the ele- 
mentary sounds, and then present the letters as 
their representatives, together with the practice 
of analyzing words into their elements, thus 
showing at once the silent letters and the equiv- 
4 



74 LITERAEY QUALIFICATIONS 

Few good readers.— Mr. Mann's statement. 

alents. These systems may be taught in half 
the time that the old systems can be ; and when 
acquired, they are of much greater practical 
utility to the learner. As my views have been 
more fully presented in the "Normal Chart of 
Elementary Sounds," prepared for the use of 
schools, I will only refer the reader to that 
work. 

2. Reading. Every teacher should be a good 
reader. Not more than one in every hundred 
among teachers, can now be called a good reader. 
To be able to read well implies a quick perception 
of the meaning as well as a proper enunciation of 
the words. It is a branch but poorly taught in 
most of our schools. Many of the older pupils 
get above reading before they have learned to 
read well ; and, unfortunately, many of our 
teachers can not awaken an interest in the sub- 
ject, because, very likely, they can not read any 
better than their scholars. 

It would be interesting to ascertain how large 
a proportion of our youth leave the schools with- 
out acquiring the power readily to take the sense 
of any common paragraph which they may at- 
tempt to read. I am inclined to think the num- 
ber is not small.* In this way, I account for the 



* Since writing the above, my eye has fallen upon the following, 
from the Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts 
Board of Education. "I have devoted," says Mr. Mann, "especial 
pains to learn, with some degree of numerical accuracy, how far the 
reading in our schools is an exercise of the mind in thinking and feel- 
ing, and how far it is a barren action of the organs of speech upon 



OF THE TEACHER. 75 

Hard labor.— Analysis of 1 words. 

fact that so many cease to read as soon as they 
leave school. It costs them so much effort to 
decipher the meaning of a book, that it counter- 
acts the desire for the gratification and improve- 
ment it might otherwise afford. It should not be 
so. The teacher should be a model of good read- 
ing ; he should be enthusiastic in this branch, 
and never rest till he has excited the proper in- 
terest in it among the pupils, from the oldest to 
the youngest, in the school. 

It would be well if our teachers could be 
somewhat acquainted with the Latin and Greek 
languages, as this would afford them great facil- 
ities in comprehending and defining many of our 
own words. As this can not be expected for the 
present, a substitute may be sought in some 
analysis of our derivative words. Several works 
on word -analysis have been prepared, to sup- 
ply, as far as may be, the wants of those who 
have not studied the classics. I should advise 

the atmosphere. My information is derived principally from the writ- 
ten statements of the school committees of the different towns, — gen- 
tlemen who are certainly exempt from all temptation to disparage 
the schools they superintend. The result is that more than eleven 
twelfths of all the children in the reading classes in our schools do 
not understand the meaning of the words they read; that they do 
not master the sense of their reading lessons ; and that the ideas 
and feelings intended by the author to be conveyed to and excited in 
the reader's mind, still rest in the author's intention, never having 
yet reached the place of their destination. It would hardly seem that 
the combined efforts of all .persons engaged, could have accomplished 
more in defeating the true objects of reading. How the cause of this 
deficiency is to be apportioned among the legal supervisors of the 
schools, parents, teachers, and authors of text-books, it is impossible 
to say ; but surely it is an evil gratuitous, widely-prevalent, and threat- 
ening the most alarming consequences." 



76 LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS 

"Writing. — Geography. — History. 

every teacher, for his own benefit, to master 
some one of these. 

3. Writing. It is not respectable for the 
teacher of the young to be a bad writer ; nor can 
it ever become so, even should the majority of 
bad writers continue to increase. The teacher 
should take great pains to write a plain, legible 
hand. This is an essential qualification. 

4. Geography. A knowledge of the principles 
of geography is essential. This implies an ac- 
quaintance with the use of the globes, and the 
art of map-drawing. The teacher should be so 
well versed in geography, that, with an outline 
map of any country before him, he could give 
an intelligent account of its surface, people, 
resources, history, etc. ; and if the outline 
map were not at hand, he ought to be able to 
draw one from memory, — at least of each of the 
grand divisions of the earth, and of the United 
States. 

Nothing is more necessary for giving interest 
and charm to geographical instruction than a 
fund of anecdote and illustration, that may be 
found in books of travel ; and such literature 
should be regarded as a part of the necessary 
outfit of the teacher. 

5. History. The teacher should be acquainted 
with history, — at least, the history of the United 
States. He can hardly teach geography success- 
fully without a competent knowledge of both 
ancient and modern history. It should, in the 



OF THE TEACHER. 77 



Literature.— Mental Arithmetic. 



main, be taught in our common schools in con- 
nection with geography. 

6. Literature. If the teacher aims to be a 
man of culture, he must have an acquaintance 
with general literature. Not to know what the 
better spirits of the world have written, and not 
to have gained some appreciation of their master- 
pieces, is to have missed one of the prime con- 
ditions of high teaching power. A defense against 
the many narrowing tendencies in the teacher's 
life, may be found in the three catholic studies 
just named, — Geography, History, and Literature. 

7. Mental Arithmetic Let every teacher be 
thoroughly versed in some good work on this 
subject. Colburn's was the first, and it is proba- 
bly the best that has been prepared. That little 
book has done more than any other for the im- 
provement of teaching in this country. It is not 
enough that the teacher is able in some way to 
obtain the answers to the questions proposed. 
He should be able to give the reason for every 
step in the process he takes to obtain them, and 
to do it in a clear and concise manner. It is this 
which constitutes the value of this branch as a 
discipline for the mind. 

I may never forget my first introduction to 
this work. On entering an academy as a student, 
in 182 7, after I had "ciphered through" some 
four or five arithmetics on the old plan, my 
teacher asked me if I had ever studied Mental 
Arithmetic, extending to me the little book above 



78 LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS 

"Written Arithmetic. 

named. "No, sir." "Perhaps you would like to 
do so." I opened to the first page, and saw this 
question : " How many thumbs have you on your 
right hand ? " This was enough ; the color came 
into my face, and I pettishly replied, "I think I can 
find out the number of my thumbs without study- 
ing a booh for it." "But," said the teacher, "many 
of our young men have studied it, and they think 
they have been profited. If you will take it, and 
turn over till you find a little exercise for your 
mind, I think you will like it." His manner was 
open and sincere, and I took the little book. In 
three weeks, I had mastered it ; and I had gained, 
in that time, more knowledge of the" principles of 
arithmetic than I had ever acquired in all my life 
before. I no longer "saw through a glass darkly." 

8. Written Arithmetic This everybody de- 
mands of the teacher ; and he is scarcely in dan- 
ger of being without fair pretensions in this 
branch. He should, however, know it by its prin- 
ciples, rather than by its rules and facts. He 
should so understand it, that if every arithmetic 
in the world should be burned, he could still 
make another, constructing its rules and explain- 
ing their principles. He should understand arith- 
metic so well, that he could teach it thoroughly 
though all text-books should be excluded from 
his school-room. This is not demanding too much. 
Arithmetic is a certain science, and used every 
day of one's life, — the teacher should be an entire 
master of it. 



OF THE TEACHER. 79 



English Grammar.— Algebra. 



9. English Grammar. It is rare that a teacher 
is found without some pretensions to English 
Grammar; yet it is deplorable to observe how 
very few have any liberal or philosophical ac- 
quaintance with it. In many cases, it is little 
else than a system of barren technicalities. The 
teacher studies one book, and too often takes that 
as his creed. In no science, is it more necessary 
to be acquainted with several authors. The per- 
son who has studied but one text-book on gram- 
mar, even if that be the best one extant, is but 
poorly qualified to teach this branch. There is a 
philosophy of language which the teacher should 
carefully study ; and if within his power, he 
should have some acquaintance with the peculiar 
structure of other languages besides his own. It 
can hardly be expected that the common teacher 
should acquire an accurate knowledge of other 
languages by actually studying them. As a sub- 
stitute for this, I would recommend that the 
teacher should very carefully read the little work 
of De Sacy on General Grammar, also the article 
"Grammar" in the Edinburgh and other ency- 
clopedias. In this science, the mind naturally 
runs to bigotry ; and there is no science where 
the learner is apt to be so conceited upon small 
acquirements, as in grammar. Let the teacher 
spare no pains to master this subject. 

10. Algebra. This branch is not yet required 
to be taught in all our schools; yet the teacher 
should have a thorough acquaintance with it. 



80 LITEEAEY QUALIFICATIONS 

Geometry.— Trigonometry. — Surveying.— Natural Philosophy. 

Even if he is never called upon to teach it (and 
it never should be introduced into our common 
schools till very thorough attainments are more 
common in the other branches), still it so much 
improves the mind of the teacher, that he should 
not be without a knowledge of it. He will teach 
simple arithmetic much better for knowing alge- 
bra. I consider an acquaintance with it indispen- 
sable to the thorough teacher, even of the common 
school. 

11. Geometry. The same may be said of this 
branch that has been said of algebra. Probably 
nothing disciplines the mind more effectually than 
the study of geometry. The teacher should pur- 
sue it for this reason. He will teach other things 
the better for having had this discipline, to say 
nothing of the advantage which a knowledge of 
the principles of geometry will give him, in un- 
derstanding and explaining the branches of 
mathematics. 

12. Plane Trigonometry and Surveying. In 
many of our schools, these branches are required 
to be taught. They are important branches in 
themselves, and they also afford good exercise for 
the mind in their acquisition. The young teacher, 
especially the male teacher, should make the 
acquirement. 

13. Natural Philosophy. This branch is not 
taught in most of our district schools. The teacher, 
however, should understand it better than it is 
presented in many of the simple text-books on 



OF THE TEACHER. 81 

Chemistry.— Human Physiology. 

this subject. He should have studied the philoso- 
phy of its principles, and be fully acquainted with 
their demonstration. If possible, he should have 
had an opportunity also of seeing the principles 
illustrated by experiment. This is a great field ; 
let not the teacher be satisfied with cropping a 
little of the herbage about its borders. 

14. Chemistry. As a matter of intelligence, 
the teacher should have acquaintance with this 
branch. It is comparatively a new science, but it 
is almost a science of miracles. It is beginning 
to be taught in our common schools ; and that 
department of it which relates to agriculture, is 
destined to be of vast importance to the agricul- 
tural interests of our country. "Instead of con- 
jecture, and hazard, and doubt, and experiment, 
as heretofore, a knowledge of the composition of 
soils, the food of plants, and the processes of nat- 
ure in the culture and growth of crops, would 
elevate agriculture to a conspicuous rank among 
the exact sciences."* The teacher should not be 
behind the age in this department. 

15. Human Physiology. The teacher should 
well understand this subject. There is an unpar- 
donable ignorance in the community as to the 
structure of the human body, and the laws of 
health, the observance of which is, in general, a 
condition of longevity, not to say of exemption 
from disease. By reference to statistics, it has 
been ascertained that almost a fourth part of all 

* Col. Young. 



82 LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS 

Importance of a knowledge of the laws of health.. 

the children that are born, die before they are 
one year old. More than one third die before 
they are five years of age ; and before the age of 
eight, more than one half of all that are born re- 
turn again to the earth ! Of those who survive, 
how many suffer the miseries of lingering disease, 
almost sighing for death to deliver them from 
the pangs of life ! There is something deplorably 
wrong in our philosophy of living, else the con- 
dition of man would not so commonly appear an 
exception to the truth that God does all things 
well.* Dr. Woodward, late of the Massachusetts 
State Lunatic Hospital, says : " From the cradle 
to the grave, we suffer punishment for the viola- 
tion of the laws of health and life. I have no 
doubt that half the evils of life, and half the 
deaths that occur among mankind, arise from 
ignorance of these natural laws ; and that a 
thorough knowledge of them would diminish the 
sufferings incident to our present state of being in 
very nearly the same proportion." I know not how 
an acquaintance with these laws can be in any Way 
so readily extended as through the agency of our 



* "It is the vast field of ignorance pertaining to these subjects, in 
which quackery thrives and fattens. No one who knows any thing of the 
organs and functions of the human system, and of the properties of those 
objects in nature to which that system is related, can hear a quack des- 
cant upon the miraculous virtues of his nostrums, or can read his adver- 
tisements in the newspapers,— wherein, fraudulently toward man and 
impiously toward Q-od, he promises to sell an ' Elixir of Life ', or ' The 
Balm of Immortality ', or ' Resurrection Pills ',— without contempt for his 
ignorance or detestation of his guilt. Could the quack administer his 
nostrums to the great enemy, Death, then indeed we might expect to live 
forever ! "—Horace Mann. 



OF THE TEACHER. 83 

Intellectual Philosophy. 

teachers of the young. At any rate, the teacher 
himself should understand them, both for his 
own profit and the means thus afforded him of 
being directly useful in the discharge of his duties 
to others. I have already shown that he is re- 
sponsible to a great extent for the bodily health 
of his pupils. A thorough knowledge of physi- 
ology will enable him to meet this responsibility. 
In several States, legislation now enjoins on 
teachers the duty of giving instruction on the 
physiological effects of alcohol ; and to do this 
discreetly and effectively, requires exact knowl- 
edge of the subject. Text-books on Physiology 
have been expressly prepared to meet this new 
requirement. 

16. Intellectual Philosophy. This is neces- 
sary for the teacher. His business is with the 
mind. He, of all men, should know something 
of its laws and its nature. He can know some- 
thing, indeed, by observation and introspection ; 
but he should also learn by careful study. His 
own improvement demands it, and his usefulness 
depends upon it. 

For the teacher, Psychology may have all the 
concrete interest of Botany or Geology. The study 
of mental phenomena is almost forced on his 
notice ; and, with enough knowledge of mental 
science to enable him to interpret the phenomena 
of hourly appearance, he would soon feel a new 
zeal in his work and might make needed contri- 
butions to educational science. 



84 LITERAEY QUALIFICATIONS 

Moral Philosophy.— Rhetoric— Book-keeping. 

17. Moral Philosophy. A knowledge of this 
may be insisted on for the same reasons which 
apply to intellectual philosophy. It is so impor- 
tant that the moral nature of the child be rightly 
dealt with, that he is a presumptuous man who 
attempts the work without the most careful atten- 
tion to this subject. 

18. Rhetoric and Logic. These are of great 
service to the teacher personally, as means of 
mental discipline and the cultivation of his own 
taste. Even if he is never to teach them, they 
will afford him much assistance in other depart- 
ments of instruction. He certainly should have 
the advantage of them. 

19. Book-keeping. Every teacher should know 
something of book-keeping, at least by single 
entry; and also be conversant with the ordinary 
forms of business. The profound ignorance on 
this subject among teachers is truly astonishing.* 
Book-keeping should be a common-school study. 
In looking over the able Report of the Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools in New York, I 
notice in fifty-three counties, during the winter 
of 1845-6, that among 225,540 pupils in the 
common schools, only 922 studied book-keeping ! 

* A teacher, who kept a private school, was met in a country store 
one day by one of his patrons, who paid him for the tuition of his child, 
asking at the same time for a receipt. The teacher stared vacantly at his 
patron. " Just give me a hit of paper," said the patron, " to show you've 
got the money." " O, yes, sir," said the teacher; and taking a pen and 
paper, wrote the following : 

l SW I have got the money. 

J D . 






OF THE TEACHER. 85 

Science of Government. 

That is, a study, which in practical life comes 
home to the interest not only of every merchant, 
but of every farmer, every mechanic, in short, 
every business man, is almost entirely neglected 
in the schools, — while it is yet true that our 
courts of justice display evidences of the most 
deplorable ignorance in this important art. Some 
still keep their accounts on bits of paper ; others 
use books, but without any system, order, or intelli- 
gibility : and others still, mark their scores in chalk, 
or charcoal, upon the panel of the cellar-door ! 

The teacher should qualify himself, not only to 
understand this subject, but to teach it in such a 
way that it can be easily comprehended by the 
classes in our common schools. 

20. Science of Government. The teacher 
should, at least, be well acquainted with the his- 
tory and genius of our own government, the con- 
stitution of the United States, and of his own State. 
In a republican government, it is of great im- 
portance that the young, who are to take an active 
part in public measures as soon as they arrive at 
the age of twenty-one, should before that time be 
made acquainted with some of their duties and 
relations as citizens. This subject has been in- 
troduced successfully into many of our common 
schools ; but whether it is to be matter of formal 
teaching or not, it is a disgrace * to a teacher and 



* Not long since a teacher of a public school afforded lasting amuse- 
ment for the hangers-on at a country grocery. He was jeered for be- 
longing to the whig party by which Mr. Tyler was brought into power. 



LITEEARY QUALIFICATIONS 



Drawing.— Vocal Music. 



to his profession, to be ignorant of the provisions 
of the constitution for the mode of choosing our 
rulers.* 

21. Drawing. The good teacher should under- 
stand the principles of drawing. He should also 
be able to practice this art. It is of great conse- 
quence to him. Without neglect of other things, 
children can be very profitably taught this art in 
the common schools. In the absence of apparatus, 
it is the teacher's only way of addressing the eye 
of his pupils, in illustrating his teaching. Every 
teacher should take pains, not only to draw, but 
to draw well. 

22. Vocal Music. It is not absolutely essential, 
though very desirable, to the good" teacher, that 
he should understand music, theoretically and 
practically. Music is becoming an exercise in our 
best schools ; and wherever introduced and judi- 
ciously conducted, it has been attended with pleas- 
ing results. It promotes good reading and speak- 
ing, by disciplining the ear to distinguish sounds ; 
and it also facilitates the cultivation of the finer 
feelings of our nature. It aids very much in the 
government of the school, as its exercise gives 
vent to that restlessness which otherwise would 
find an escapement in boisterous noise and whis- 

"No, no," said he, "I voted for Oen. Harrison, but I never voted for John 
Tyler.'''' "How did y\)u do that ?" inquired a by-stander. '■'■Why,! cut 
Tyler's name off of the ticket, to be sure ! " 

* " That which contributes most to preserve the state, is to educate 
children with reference to the state ; for the most useful laws will be of 
no service, if the citizens are not accustomed to and brought up in the 
principles of the constitution." — Aristotle. 



OF THE TEACHER. 87 

Safety-valve.— Martin Luther.— Remarks. 

pering, — and thus it often proves a safety-valve, 
through which a love of vociferation and activity 
may pass off in a more harmless and a more 
pleasing way. "The school-master that can not 
sing," says Martin Luther, " I would not look 
upon." Perhaps this language is too strong ; hut 
it is usually more pleasant to look upon a school 
where the school-master can sing. 



I have thus gone through with a list of studies 
which, it seems to me, every one who means to 
be a good teacher, even of a common school, 
should make himself acquainted with. I would 
not condemn a teacher who, having other good 
qualities, and a thorough scholarship as far as he 
has gone, might lack several of the branches 
above named. There have been many good teach- 
ers without all this attainment; but how much 
better they might have been with it ! 

I have made this course of study as limited as 
I possibly could, taking into view the present 
condition and wants of our schools. No doubt 
even more will be demanded in a few years. I 
would have the present race of teachers so good, 
that they shall be looked upon by those who suc- 
ceed them, as their " worthy and efficient prede- 
cessors." 

I ought in this place to add that the teacher 
increases his influence and, consequently, his use- 



LITERAKY QUALIFICATIONS 



General knowledge desirable. — A suggestion. 



fulness, in proportion as he makes himself con- 
versant with general knowledge. This is too 
much neglected. The teacher, by the fatigue of 
his employment and the circumstances of his life, 
is strongly tempted to content himself with what 
he already knows, or, at best, to confine himself 
to the study of those branches which he is called 
upon to teach. He should stoutly resist this 
temptation. He should always have some course 
of study marked out, which he will systematically 
pursue. He should, as soon as possible, make 
himself acquainted generally with the subject of 
astronomy, the principles of geology, in short, the 
various branches of natural history. He will find 
one field after another open before him ; and if he 
will but have the perseverance to press forward, 
even in the laborious occupation of teaching, he 
may make himself a well-informed man. 

I will venture one other suggestion. I have 
found it a most profitable thing in the promotion 
of my own improvement, to take up annually, or 
oftener, some particular subject to be pursued 
with reference to writing an extended lecture 
upon it. This gives point to the course of read- 
ing, and keeps the interest fixed. When the 
thorough investigation has been made, let the 
lecture be written from memory, embodying all 
the prominent points, and presenting them in the 
most striking and systematic manner. It should 
be done, too, with reference to accuracy and even 
elegance of style, so that the composition may be 



OF THE TEACHER. 89 

A point gained.— Self -improvement. 

yearly improved. In this way, certain subjects are 
forever fixed in the mind. One who carefully 
reads for a definite object, and afterward writes 
the results from memory, never loses his hold 
upon the facts thus appropriated. 

No matter what a teacher's opportunities for 
professional training may have been, he should 
ever feel himself under obligations to work in 
the line of self -improvement. As education is a 
matter of life, activity, and growth, these qualities 
should manifest themselves in the teacher in a 
pre-eminent degree. A teacher who has ceased 
to be an active student, has lost the secret of his 
greatest power.* In the presence of a cultured 
man or woman who is animated by the zeal of a 
scholar, the young imbibe the scholarly spirit by 
a sort of induction. Taking the teaching class 
as it is, it must be confessed that active scholar- 
ship is not one of its marks. There is more than 
one cause for this. In most cases, teaching is an 
avocation, and so professional improvement is 
not a matter of self-interest ; in many cases, an 
imperfect academic training has left behind it 
the bane of complacent self-satisfaction ; and in 
all cases, generally speaking, there is lacking the 
stimulus to progress which comes from an exact- 
ing auditory. As our pupils are satisfied with 
less than we have, we do not feel obliged to strive 
after more than we have. 

* " How shall lie give Mndling in whose inward man there is no live 
coal, but all is burnt out to a dead grammatical cinder ? "— Carlyle. 



90 LITERARY QUALIFICATIONS. 

Public opinion.— Reading Circles. 

Public opinion, acting through school officers, 
is now stimulating the teaching class to higher 
literary and professional qualifications, and there 
is every-where manifest a sincere desire on the 
part of teachers to meet these reasonable require- 
ments. The difficulty consists in not knowing 
what definite things to do, or how to do them, 
and in not having the hope of a tangible reward. 
In response to these needs, State organizations, 
known as "Reading Circles", are now in process 
of formation.* The general plan is to prescribe 
a course of reading in two main lines, — profes- 
sional, including the art, the science, and the 
history of education, and in general literature, 
comprising History and Belles-lettres. Examina- 
tions and certificates of proficiency are provided 
for, and it is expected that examining boards will 
credit candidates with the work done in these 
Circles. This is a movement in the right line, 
and deserves hearty encouragement. 

* Such, organizations have now been made in Ohio, Indiana, Ulinois, 
Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

EVERY teacher, before he begins the work of 
instruction, should have some definite idea 
of what constitutes an education ; otherwise, he 
may work to very little purpose. The painter, 
who would execute a beautiful picture, must have 
beforehand a true and clear conception of beauty 
in his own mind. The same may be said of the 
sculptor. That rude block of marble, unsightly 
to the eyes of other men, contains the godlike 
form, the symmetrical proportion, the life-like 
attitude of the finished and polished statue ; and 
the whole is as clear to his mental eye before 
the chisel is applied, as it is to his bodily vision 
when the work is completed. With this perfect 
ideal in the mind at the outset, every stroke of 
the chisel has its object. Not a blow is struck, 
but it is guided by consummate skill ; not a chip 
is removed, but to develop the ideal of the artist. 
And when the late unsightly marble, as if by 
miraculous power, stands out before the aston- 
ished spectator in all the perfection of beauty, — 
when it almost breathes and speaks, — it is to the 
artist but the realization of his own conception. 
Now let the same astonished and delighted spec- 



92 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

A spectator's efforts.— The difference. 

tator, with the same instruments, attempt to pro- 
duce another statue from a similar block. On this 
side, he scores too deep ; on the other, he leaves a 
protuberance ; here, by carelessness, he encroaches 
upon the rounded limb ; there, by accident, he 
hews a chip from off the nose ; by want of skill, 
one eye ill-mates the other ; one hand is distorted 
as if racked by pangs of the gout ; the other_ is 
paralyzed and deathlike. Such would be his sig- 
nal failure. Thus he might fail a thousand times. 
Indeed, it would be matter of strange surprise, if, 
in a thousand efforts, he should once succeed. 

Now the difference between the artist and the 
spectator lies chiefly in this : the one knows be- 
forehand what he means to do, — the other works 
without any plan. The one has studied beauty 
till he can see it in the rugged block ; the other 
only knows it when it is presented to him. The 
former, having an ideal, produces it with unerring 
skill ; the latter, having no conception to guide 
him, brings out deformity. 

"What sculpture is to the block of marble," 
says Addison, " education is to the human soul ; " 
and may I not add, that the sculptor is a type 
of the true educator, — while the spectator, of 
whom I have been speaking, may aptly represent 
too many false teachers, who, without study or 
forethought, enter upon the delicate business of 
fashioning the human soul, blindly experimenting 
amidst the wreck of their heaven-descended ma- 
terial, maiming and marring, with scarcely the 



RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 93 

Blindness of employers.— Illustrated. 

possibility of final success, — almost with the cer- 
tainty of a melancholy failure ! 

In other things besides education, men are 
wiser. They follow more the teachings of nature 
and of common sense. But in education, where 
a child has but one opportunity for mental train- 
ing, as he can be a child but once, — where suc- 
cess, unerring success, is every thing to him for 
time and eternity, and where a mistake may be 
most ruinous to him, — in education, men often 
forget their ordinary wisdom and providence, and 
commit the most important concerns to the most 
incompetent hands. "The prevailing opinions," 
says Geo. B. Emerson, " in regard to this art are 
such as the common sense of mankind and the 
experience of centuries have shown to be absurd 
as to every other art and pursuit of civilized life. 
To be qualified to discourse upon our moral and 
religious duties, a man must be educated by 
years of study ; to be able to minister to the 
body in disease, he must be educated by a care- 
ful examination of the body in health and in 
disease, and of the effects produced on it by 
external agents ; to be able to make out a con- 
veyance of property, or to draw a writ, he must 
be educated ; to navigate a ship, he must be edu- 
cated by years of service before the mast or on 
the quarter-deck ; to transfer the products of the 
earth or of art from the producer to the con- 
sumer, he must be educated ; to make a hat or 
a coat, he must be educated by years of appren- 



94 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

Many poor teachers.— Defects in teaching. 

ticeship ; to make a plow, he must be educated ; 
to make a nail, or a shoe for a horse or an ox, 
he must be educated. But to prepare a man to 
do all these things, — to train the body in its 
most tender years, according to the laws of health 
so that it should be strong to resist disease — to 
fill the mind with useful knowledge, to educate it 
to comprehend all the relations of society, to bring 
out all its powers into full and harmonious ac- 
tion — to educate the moral nature, in which the 
very sentiment of duty resides, that it may be 
fitted for an honorable and worthy fulfillment of 
the public and private offices of life, — to do all 
this is supposed to require no study, no appren- 
ticeship, no preparation ! " 

Many teachers, therefore, encouraged by this 
unaccountable indifference in the community, 
have entered the teacher's profession without any 
idea of the responsibilities assumed, or of the end 
to be secured by their labors, aside from receiv- 
ing, at the close of their term, the compensation 
for their service in dollars and cents. And even 
many who have entered this profession with good 
intentions, have made the most deplorable mis- 
takes from a want of an adequate idea of what 
constitutes an education. Too often has educat- 
ing a child been considered simply the act of 
imparting to it a certain amount of knowledge, 
or of " carrying it through " a certain number of 
studies, more or less. Education has too fre- 
quently been held to be a cultivation of the in- 






EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 95 

Knowledge may be unsafe.— A great question. 

tellectual to the neglect of the moral powers ; 
and the poor body, too, except among savages, 
has had but little share in its privileges or bene- 
fits. In a very large number of our schools, the 
physical and the moral have both been sacrificed 
to the intellectual. Even some of our public 
speakers have dwelt upon the necessity of intel- 
ligence to the perpetuity of our free institutions, 
scarcely seeming to be aware that intelligence, 
without moral principle to direct and regulate it, 
might become the very engine through which 
evil men might effect our overthrow. Who has 
not seen that an educated man, without virtue, 
is but the more capable of doing evil ? Who does 
not know that knowledge misdirected, becomes, 
instead of a boon to be desired, a bane to be 
deprecated ? 

From what has been said, I place it among 
the highest qualifications of the teacher that he 
should have just views of education. I consider 
it all-important that he should have a well- 
defined object at which to aim, whenever he 
meets a young mind in the transition state. He 
should have an ideal of a well-educated human 
soul, tenanting a healthy, well-developed human 
body ; an ideal which he at once and systematic- 
ally labors to reach, as does the sculptor when 
he commences his work upon the quarried mar- 
ble. "What is it to educate a human being 
aright?" should be one of the first questions the 
candidate for the teacher's office should ask him- 



96 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

Results of inquiry.— Knowledge not undervalued. 

self with the deepest seriousness. I say the can- 
didate ; for this question should be settled, if 
possible, before he begins his work. It is a great 
question, and he may not be able to answer it in 
a day. Let him consult the dictates of his own 
mind, — let him consult the teachings of experi- 
ence and of wisdom, as they are to be found in 
the writings of Milton, Locke, Wyse, Cousin, 
Brougham, and others of the eastern continent, 
and of Wayland, Potter, Mann, G. B. Emerson, 
Dwight, and many others of our own countrymen. 
Let him, enlightened by all this, carefully observe 
human nature around him ; consider its tenden- 
cies, its wants, and its capabilities ; and after a 
patient survey of all the truth he can discover 
upon the subject, let him come to an honest con- 
clusion as to what is a correct answer to the query 
with which he started — "What is it to educate a 
human being aright?" 

The conclusions of the honest and intelligent 
inquirer after the truth in this matter, will be 
something like the following: — That education 
(from e and duco, to lead forth) is development ; 
that it is not instruction merely — knowledge, 
facts, rules — communicated by the teacher, but 
it is discipline, it is a waking up of the mind, a 
growth of the mind, — growth by a healthy assim- 
ilation of wholesome aliment. It is an inspiring 
of the mind with a thirst for knowledge, growth, 
enlargement, — and then a disciplining of its 
powers so far that it can go on to educate itself. 



RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 97 

Discipline the primary purpose. 

It is the arousing of the child's mind to think, 
without thinking for it ; it is the awakening of 
its powers to observe, to remember, to reflect, to 
combine. It is not a cultivation of the memory 
to the neglect of every thing else ; but it is a 
calling forth of all the faculties into harmonious 
action. If to possess facts simply is education, 
then an encyclopedia is better educated than a 
man. 

It should be remarked that though knowledge 
is not education, yet there will be no education 
without knowledge. Knowledge is ever an inci- 
dent of true education. No man can be properly 
educated without the acquisition of knowledge ; 
the mistake is in considering knowledge the end 
when it is either the incident or the means of 
education. The discipline of the mind, then, is 
the great thing in intellectual training ; and the 
question is not, how much have I acquired? — 
but, how have my powers been strengthened in 
the act of acquisition? 

Nor should the intellectual be earlier culti- 
vated than the moral powers of the mind. The 
love of moral truth should be as early addressed 
as the love of knowledge. The conscience should 
be early exercised in judging of the character of 
the pupil's own acts, and every opportunity af- 
forded to strengthen it by legitimate use. Nor 
should the powers of the mind be earlier culti- 
vated than those of the body. It is the theory of 
sorrje, indeed, that the body should engross most 
5 






98 RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

The whole man to be educated. 

of the attention for several of the first years of 
childhood. This, I think, is not nature's plan. 
She cultivates all the powers at once, — the body, 
mind, and heart. So should the teacher do. 
"Education," in the pertinent language of Mr. 
Fox,* " has reference to the whole man, the body, 
the mind, and the heart ; its object, and, when 
rightly conducted, its effect is, to make him a 
complete creature after his kind. To his frame 
it would give vigor, activity, and beauty ; to his 
senses, correctness and acuteness ; to his intellect, 
power and truthfulness ; to his heart, virtue. The 
educated man is not the gladiator, nor the scholar, 
nor the upright man, alone ; but a just and well- 
balanced combination of all three. Just as the 
educated tree is neither the large root, nor the 
giant branches, nor the rich foliage, but all of 
them together. If you would mark the perfect 
man, you must not look for him in the circus, 
the university, or the church, exclusively ; but 
you must look for one who has 'mens sana in 
corpore sano ' — a healthful mind in a healthful 
body. The being in whom you find this union, 
is the only one worthy to be called educated. To 
make all men such, is the object of education." 

I have dwelt thus fully on this subject, be- 
cause it is so obvious that egregious mistakes 
are made in education. How many there are 
who are called " good scholars " in our schools, of 
whom we hear nothing after they go forth into 

* Lecture before the Am. Institute, 1835. 



RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 99 

Errors in education. 

the world. Their good scholarship consists in 
that which gives them no impulse to go on to 
greater attainments by themselves. Their learn- 
ing is either that of reception — as the sponge 
takes in water — or that of mere memory. Their 
education is not discipline ; it kindles none of 
those desires which nothing but further progress 
can satisfy ; it imparts none of that self-reliance 
which nothing but impossibilities can ever sub- 
due. While these are pointed out by their teach- 
ers as the ornaments of their schools, there are 
others, known as the heavy, dull, "poor scholars", 
in no way distinguished but by their stupidity, — 
of whom no hopes are entertained, because of 
them nothing is expected, — who in after-life fairly 
outstrip their fellows and strangely astonish their 
teachers. Almost every teacher of fifteen years' 
experience has noticed this. Now, why is it so? 
There must have been somehow in such cases a 
gross mis judgment of character. Either those 
pupils who promised so much by their quickness, 
were educated wrong, and perhaps educated too 
much, while their teachers unwittingly and unin- 
tentionally educated their less distinguished com- 
panions far more judiciously ; or else, nature in 
such cases must be said to have been playing 
such odd pranks that legitimate causes could not 
produce their legitimate effects. We must charge 
nature as being extremely capricious, or we must 
allege that the teachers entirely misunderstood 
their work, failing where they expected most, and 



100 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

Need of a science of education. 

succeeding, as if by chance — almost against their 
will — where they expected least. I incline to the 
latter alternative ; and hence I infer that there is 
such a thing as teaching a mind naturally active 
too much — exciting it too much, — so that it will 
prematurely exhaust its energies and gladly settle 
back into almost imbecility ; and that there is 
such a thing as leaving the mind so much to its 
own resources, that without dazzling the beholder 
like the flash of the meteor when it glares upon 
the startled vision, it may be silently gathering 
materials to support the more enduring light of 
the morning-star which anon will rise in majesty 
and glory. 

It will be well for our youth when our teachers 
shall so understand human nature, and so com- 
prehend the science and the art of education, 
that these mistakes shall seldom occur ; and when 
he who tills the nobler soil of the mind, shall, 
with as much faith and as much certainty as he 
who tills the literal field, rely upon the fulfillment 
of heaven's unchangeable law : " Whatsoever a 
man soweth that shall he also reap." 

Education, in its absolute sense, is a process 
that aims at realizing the typical man. 

Among trees, we observe various degrees of 
perfection as to form and structure ; and in esti- 
mating the degree of perfection, we compare the 
given specimen with a typical tree of its kind. 
"We conceive that each tree of a species is fash- 
ioned after an ideal — a perfect and invariable 



RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 101 

Education as an ideal. 



pattern ; and the ideal cultivation of a tree 
would consist in causing it to grow into its typi- 
cal form. 

Every animal of a given species, as a horse, 
approaches its type in a greater or less degree ; 
and the ideal training of an animal would consist 
in having it grow into the type of its kind. 

In man, there are numberless degrees of phys- 
ical perfection. At one extreme, there is un- 
sightly deformity, at the other divine beauty, and 
between, an ascending scale of infinite gradations. 
In mind, the range is from imbecility to inspired 
genius, with countless gradations between. In 
■morals, the slow ascent is from the monster to the 
saint. In each of these three orders of growth, 
the ascent is toward an ideal type ; and the 
sphere of education, as a conscious art, is to lead 
man up to the typical perfection of his physical, 
mental, and moral being. 

The type toward which education aspires is a 
mental creation. The best specimens that come 
under our notice are imperfect ; and to the ideal 
that is formed from the aggregate of the highest 
observed excellences, the mind adds something of 
its own to complete the type. 

All human beings are under the law of ascent 
toward a typical form. This is their law of 
growth. The natural education of man takes 
place through the unassisted action of this law ; 
just as a plant, when abandoned to itself, will 
undergo a fortuitous growth. This natural edu- 



102 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

Education defined.— Limitations. 

cation is the typical education in only one re- 
spect : an upward tendency in the line of growth. 

Education in the absolute sense above illus- 
trated, has been thus denned : " The harmonious 
and equable evolution of the human powers." 

This conception of education is subject to the 
following limitations in practice : 

1. It comprehends the whole period of life, 
from the cradle to the grave, while in practice, 
the period of education is limited to a few years. 

2. It involves physical, mental, moral, and re- 
ligious training, while the efforts of the actual 
educator can scarcely extend beyond the train- 
ing of the intellect. 

3. It aims at the perfection of the human 
being as a whole, while the exigencies of life 
require men to be trained for specific duties. 

Under these limitations, education becomes 
nearly synonymous with instruction, and may be 
defined as a process having three purposes : 

1. To develop the intellectual faculties, so as 
to produce robustness of mind and habits of ready 
and accurate thinking. 

2. To furnish the mind with knowledge for 
use. 

3. To impart skill in the use of instrumental 
knowledge. 

The difference between education in its abso- 
lute sense, and education under its practical limi- 
tations, may be illustrated as follows : 

If a tree or a shrub is needed for a special 



RIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 103 



Special training, and its results. 



use, as for a hedge, the cultivator abandons the 
typical form and determines the growth into a 
modified form. Whenever one part of a vegeta- 
ble, as the root, the flower, or the seed, becomes 
especially valuable, the idea of symmetrical growth 
is abandoned, and this part is given an abnormal 
(unnatural) growth. 

In training a horse, instead of aiming at the 
most perfect specimen of his kind, the horse- 
man may train him for the race-course, or the 
plow, or the saddle. A modified form is found 
more useful, and so the typical form is aban- 
doned. 

There is an antagonism between man as an 
ideal of his kind, and man as an instrument of 
service ; and education is forced to depart from 
her ideal in order to fit man for the limitations 
under which he lives. To make a lawyer, or a 
carpenter, there must be some departure from the 
course of training that would lead up to the typ- 
ical man. 

By reason of the limitations of time, education, 
as a practical art, must abandon formal physical 
and moral training. Physical soundness must be 
a postulate, and direct moral and religious train- 
ing must be relegated to the family and the 
church. 

A liberal education aims at the ideal perfec- 
tion of the mind. Its purpose is to give it all 
possible perfection as the instrument of thought, 
to furnish it with knowledge the most fit for 



104 EIGHT VIEWS OF EDUCATION. 

A professional education. 

the man, and to train it to a dexterous use of 
all its energies. 

A professional or technical education either 
supplants or supplements a liberal education. It 
is either the instrument alone, or the man first 
and then the instrument.* 

* " The end desired must be known before the way. Ml means or 
arts of education will be, in the first instance, determined by the ideal 
we entertain of it."— Hichter, Levana, p. 29. 



CHAPTER VII. 

RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

FROM what has been said of Education, it is 
very obvious that it is no small thing to be 
a successful teacher. It is admitted by all that 
the teacher should be apt to teach. He can not 
be useful without this. He may have an unim- 
peachable character ; he may have the most lib- 
eral and thorough literary acquirements ; he may 
deeply feel his responsibility, and yet after all he 
may fail to teach successfully. 

Aptness to teach has been said to be a native 
endowment, a sort of instinct, and therefore in- 
capable of being improved by experience or in- 
struction, — an instinct such as that which guides 
the robin, though hatched in an oven, to build a 
perfect nest like that of its parent, without ever 
having seen one. I am of opinion that such in- 
stincts in men are rare ; but that aptness to teach, 
like aptness to do any thing else, is usually an 
acquired power, based upon a correct knowledge 
of what is to be done, and some accurate estimate 
of the fitness of the means used for the end. If 
there are exceptions to this, they are very un- 
common ; and the safer way, therefore, for the 
majority of teachers, is, to study carefully the 



106 EIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

A mistake. — The way literary nurselings are made. 

rationale of their processes, and to rely rather 
upon sound and philosophical principles in their 
teaching, than upon a very doubtful intuition. 

One of the most common errors into which 
young teachers fall (and some old ones too), is 
that of misjudging of the degree of assistance 
which the young scholar needs in the pursuit of 
learning. There are a few who forget the diffi- 
culties which impeded their own perception of 
new truths when learners, and therefore have no 
sympathy with the perplexities which surround 
the children under their charge, when they en- 
counter like difficulties. They refuse to lend a 
helping hand, even where it is needed, and by 
making light of the child's doubts, perhaps sneer- 
ing at his unsuccessful straggles, they dishearten 
him so far that imaginary obstacles become insur- 
mountable, and he gives up in despair. But a 
far more numerous class tend toward the other 
extreme. From a mistaken kindness, or a mis- 
taken estimate of the child's ability, or both, they 
are disposed to do quite too much for him, and 
thus they diminish his power to help himself. 
The child that is constantly dandled upon the 
lap of its nurse and' borne in her arms to what- 
ever point it may desire to go, does not soon 
learn to walk ; and when it at length makes the 
attempt, it moves not with the firm tread of him 
who was early taught to use his own limbs. 
There is a great deal of literary dandling prac- 
ticed in our schools ; and as a consequence, a 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 107 

Anecdote of folly.— Pouring-in.— The "oral hobby." 

great many of our children are mere sickly 
nurselings, relying upon leading-strings while in 
the school and falling, for very weakness, just 
as soon as the supporting hand is withdrawn. 
This evil is so common and in some instances 
so monstrous,* that I shall be pardoned if I dwell 
upon it a little more fully. 

In illustrating this subject, I must mention 
two processes of teaching, not, indeed, exactly 
opposite to each other, though widely different, — 
into one or both of which many of our teachers 
are very liable to fall. I shall, for the sake of a 
name, designate the former as the 



SECTION I.— POURING-IN PROCESS. 

This consists in lecturing to a class of children 
upon every subject which occurs to the teacher, 
it being his chief aim to bring before them, in 
a limited time, as many facts as possible. It is 
as if he should provide himself with a basket of 
sweetmeats, and every time he should come 
within reach of a child, should seize him and 
compel him to swallow — regardless of the condi- 
tion of his stomach — whatever trash he should 



* Not long since I visited a school, where the teacher with much self- 
complacency requested me to examine the writing of the children. It 
was indeed very fair. But when I drew from him the fact that he first 
wrote each page himself with a lead pencil and only required his schol- 
ars to black his marks over with ink, and that with unremitting labor he did 
this week after week for all the writers in his school, I knew not which 
most to wonder at, the docility of the children or the weakness of the 
teacher. The writing ceased to be wonderful. 






108 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Victims of kindness.— Passive recipient.— A jug. 

happen first to force into his mouth. Children 
are indeed fond of sweetmeats, but they do not 
like to have them administered, — and every 
physiologist knows there is such a thing as eat- 
ing enough even of an agreeable thing to make 
one sick and thus produce loathing forever 
after. Now many teachers are just such mis- 
guided caterers for the mind. They are ready to 
seize upon the victims of their kindness, force 
open their mental gullets, and pour in, without 
mercy and without discretion, whatever sweet 
thing they may have at hand, even though they 
surfeit and nauseate the poor sufferer. The mind, 
by this process, becomes a mere passive recipient, 
taking in, without much resistance, whatever is 
presented till it is full. 

"A passive recipient!" said one to his friend, 
" what is a passive recipient ? " " A passive recip- 
ient/' replied his friend, " is a two-gallon jug. It 
holds just two gallons, and as it is made of pot- 
ter's ware, it can never hold but just two gal- 
lons." This is not an unfit illustration of what I 
mean by making the mind a passive recipient. 
Whenever the teacher does not first excite in- 
quiry, first prepare the mind by waking it up to 
a desire to know, and if possible to find out by 
itself, but proceeds to think for the child, and to 
give him the results, before they are desired or 
before they have been sought for,— he makes the 
mind of the child a two-gallon jug, into which 
he may pour just two gallons, but no more. And 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 109 

Mind weakened.— Drawing-out.— Leading questions. 

if, day after day, he should continue to pour in, 
day after day he may expect that what he pours 
in will all run over. The mind, so far as reten- 
tion is concerned, will act like the jug ; that is, 
a part of what is poured in to-day, will be diluted 
by a part of that which is forced in to-morrow, 
and that again will be partially displaced and 
partially mingled with the next day's pouring, till 
at length there will be nothing characteristic left. 
But aside from retention, there is a great differ- 
ence between the jug and the mind. The former 
is inert material and may be as good a jug after 
such use as before ; but the mind suffers by every 
unsuccessful effort to retain. 

This process" of lecturing children into imbe- 
cility is altogether too frequently practiced ; and 
it is to be hoped that intelligent teachers will 
pause and inquire before they pursue it further. 

The other process to which I wish to call 
attention, is that which, for the sake of distin- 
guishing it from the first, I shall denominate the 

SECTION II.— DRAWING-OUT PROCESS. 

This consists in asking what the lawyers call 
leading questions. It is practiced, usually, when- 
ever the teacher desires to help along the pupil. 
"John," says the teacher when conducting a 
recitation in Long Division, " what is the num- 
ber to be divided called?" John hesitates. "Is 
it the dividend?" says the teacher. "Yes, sir — 



110 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

An example.— A spectator astonished.— Teaching History 1 

the dividend." "Well, John, what is that which 
is left after dividing called? — the remainder — is 
it?" "Yes, sir." A visitor now enters the room, 
and the teacher desires to show off John's tal- 
ents. ""Well, John, of what denomination is the 
remainder?" 

John looks upon the floor. 

"Isn't it always the same as the dividend, 
John?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Very well, John," says the teacher, sooth- 
ingly, " what denomination is this dividend ? " 
pointing to the work upon the board. " Dollars, is 
it not?" 

"Yes, sir; dollars." 

"Very well; now what is this remainder ? " 

John hesitates. 

" Why, dollars, too, isn't it ? " says the teacher. 

"O, yes, sir, dollars!'" says John, energetic- 
ally, while the teacher complacently looks at the 
visitor to see if he has noticed how correctly John 
has answered ! 

A class is called to be examined in History. 
They have committed the text-book to memory — 
that is, they have learned the words. They go 
on finely for a time. At length one hesitates. 
The teacher adroitly asks a question in the lan- 
guage of the text. Thus : " Early in the morning, 
on the 11th of September, what did the whole 
British army do?" The pupil, thus timely reas- 
sured, proceeds : " Early in the morning, on the 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. Ill 

A further example. 

11th of September, the ivhole British army, drawn 
up in two divisions, commenced the expected as- 
sault." Here again she pauses. The teacher pro- 
ceeds to inquire : " Well, — ' Agreeably to the plan 
of Howe, the right wing ' did what ? " 

Pupil. "Agreeably to the plan of Howe, the 
right wing " 

Teacher. " The right iving, commanded by 
whom ? " 

Pupil. " O ! ' Agreeably to the plan of Howe, 
the right -wing, commanded by Knyphausen, made 
a feint of crossing the Brandywine at Chad's 
Ford,' " etc. 

This is a very common way of helping a dull 
pupil out of a difficulty ; and I have seen it done 
so adroitly, that a company of visitors would agree 
that it was wonderful to see how thoroughly the 
children had been instructed ! 

I may further illustrate this drawing-out pro- 
cess, by describing an occurrence, which, in com- 
pany with a friend and fellow-laborer, I once 
witnessed. A teacher, whose school we visited, 
called upon the class in Colburn's First Lessons. 
They rose, and in single file marched to the usual 
place, with their books in hand, and stood erect. 
It was a very good-looking class. 

" Where do you begin ? " said the teacher, tak- 
ing the book. 

Pupils. On the 80th page, 3d question. 

Teacher. Read it, Charles. 

Charles. (Reads.) "A man being asked how 



112 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Yes, sir.— Hard mental labor. 

many sheep he had, said that he had them in 
two pastures ; in one pasture he had eight ; that 
three fourths of these were just one third of what 
he had in the other. How many were there in 
the other?" 

Teacher. "Well, Charles, you must first get 
one fourth of eight, must you not ? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Well, one fourth of eight is two, 
isn't it? 

Charles. Yes, sir ; one fourth of eight is two. 

Teacher. Well, then, three fourths will be 
three times two, won't it? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Well, three times two are six, eh ? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Very well. (A pause.) Now the 
book says that this six is just one third of what 
he had in the other pasture, don't it? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Then if six is one third, three thirds 
will be — three times six, won't it? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. And three times six are — eighteen, 
ain't it? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Then he had eighteen sheep in the 
other pasture, had he? 

Charles. Yes, sir. 

Teacher. Next, take the next one. 

At this point I interposed, and asked the 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 113 

An interposition.— Process of Extraction. 

teacher if he would request Charles to go through 
it alone. " O, yes," said the teacher ; " Charles, 
you may do it again." Charles again read the 
question, and — looked up. " Well," said the 
teacher, "you must first get one fourth of eight, 
mustn't you?" "Yes, sir." "And one fourth of 
eight is two, isn't it?" "Yes, sir." And so the 
process went on as before till the final eighteen 
sheep were drawn out as before. The teacher 
now looked round, with an air which seemed to 
say, "Now I suppose you are satisfied." 

" Shall I ask Charles to do it again ? " said I. 
The teacher assented. Charles again read the 
question, and again — looked up. I waited, and he 
waited ; but the teacher could not wait. " Why, 
Charles," said he, impatiently, " you want one 
fourth of eight, don't you?" "Yes, sir," said 
Charles, promptly ; and I thought best not to 
insist further at this time upon a repetition of 
"yes, sir", and the class were allowed to proceed 
in their own way. 

This is, indeed, an extreme case, and yet it is 
but a fair sample of that teacher's method of 
stupefying mind. This habit of assisting the 
pupil to some extent, is, however, a very common 
one, and as deleterious to mind as it is common. 
The teacher should at once abandon this practice 
and require the scholar to do the talking at reci- 
tation. I need hardly suggest that such a course 
of extraction at recitation, aside from the waste 
of time by both parties, and the waste of strength 



114 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Study discouraged.— Helping the pupil. 

by the teacher, has a direct tendency to make 
the scholar miserably superficial. For why should 
he study, if he knows from constant experience 
that the teacher, by a leading question, will re- 
lieve him from all embarrassment? It has often 
been remarked, that " the teacher makes the 
school". Perhaps in no way can he more effectu- 
ally make an inefficient school, than by this 
drawing-out process. 

I look upon the two processes just described, 
as very prominent and prevalent faults in our 
modern teaching ; and if by describing them thus 
fully, I shall induce any to set a guard upon 
their practice in this particular, I shall feel amply 
rewarded. 



SECTION III.— THE MORE EXCELLENT WAT. 

It is always a very difficult question for the 
teacher to settle, " How far shall I help the pupil, 
and how far shall the pupil be required to help 
himself?" The teaching of nature would seem to 
indicate that the pupil should be taught mainly 
to depend on his own resources. This, too, I 
think, is the teaching of common sense. What- 
ever is learned, should be so thoroughly learned, 
that the next and higher step may be compara- 
tively easy. And the teacher should always in- 
quire, when he is about to dismiss one subject, 
whether the class understand it so well that they 
can go on to the next. He may, indeed, some- 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 115 

Dangerous when excessive.— The true medium. 

times give a word of suggestion during the prep- 
aration of a lesson, and, by a seasonable hint, 
save the scholar the needless loss of much time. 
But it is a very great evil if the pupils acquire 
the habit of running to the teacher as soon as a 
slight difficulty presents itself, to request him to 
remove it. Some teachers, when this happens, 
will send the scholar to his seat with a reproof 
perhaps, while others, with a mistaken kindness, 
will answer the question or solve the problem 
themselves, as the shortest way to get rid of it. 
Both these courses are, in general, wrong. The 
inquirer should never be frowned upon ; this may 
discourage him. He should not be relieved from 
labor, as this will diminish his self-reliance with- 
out enlightening him ; for whatever is done for a 
scholar without his having studied closely upon 
it himself, makes but a feeble impression upon 
him, and is soon forgotten. The true way is, 
neither to discourage inquiry nor answer the 
question. Converse with the scholar a little as 
to the principles involved in the question ; refer 
him to principles which he has before learned, or 
has now lost sight of ; perhaps call his attention 
to some rule or explanation before given to the 
class ; go just so far as to enlighten him a little 
and put him on the scent, then leave him to 
achieve the victory himself. There is a great 
satisfaction in discovering a difficult thing for 
one's self, — and the teacher does the scholar a 
lasting injury who takes this pleasure from him. 



116 EIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

"Not to-day, sir."— "I've got it!" 

The teacher should be simply suggestive, but 
should never take the glory of a victory from the 
scholar by doing his work for him, at least, not 
until he has given it a thorough trial himself. 

The skill of the teacher, then, will be best 
manifested, if he can contrive to awaken such a 
spirit in the pupil, that he shall be very unwilling 
to be assisted ; if he can kindle up such a zeal, 
that the pupil will prefer to try again and again 
before he will consent that the teacher shall 
interpose. I shall never forget a class of boys, 
some fourteen or fifteen years of age, who in the 
study of algebra had imbibed this spirit. A diffi- 
cult question had been before the class a day or 
two, when I suggested giving them some assist- 
ance. " Not to-day, sir," was the spontaneous ex- 
clamation of nearly every one. Nor shall I forget 
the expression that beamed from the countenance 
of one of them, when, elated with his success, he 
forgot the proprieties of the school and audibly 
exclaimed, " Fve got it! Tve got it!" It was a 
great day for him ; he felt, as he never before 
had felt, his own might. Nor was it less gratify- 
ing to me to find that his fellows were still un- 
willing to know his method of solution. The 
next day, a large number brought a solution of 
their own, each showing evidence of originality. 
A class that has once attained to a feeling like 
this, will go on to educate themselves, when 
they shall have left the school and the living 
teacher. 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 117 

Other than hook-studies. 

As to the communication of knowledge, aside 
from that immediately connected with school- 
studies, there is a more excellent way than that 
of pouring it in by the process already described. 
It is but just that I should give a specimen of 
the method of doing this. I shall now proceed 
to do so, under the head of 



SECTION IV.— WAKING UP MIND. 

The teacher of any experience knows, that if 
he will excite a deep and profitable interest in 
his school, he must teach many things besides 
book-studies. In our common schools, there will 
always be a company of small children, who, not 
yet having learned to read understandingly, will 
have no means of interesting themselves and 
must depend mainly upon the teacher for the 
interest they take in the school. This to them is 
perhaps the most critical period of their lives. 
Whatever impression is now made upon them 
will be enduring. If there they become disgusted 
with the dullness and confinement of school, and 
associate the idea of pain and repulsiveness with 
that of learning, who can describe the injury 
done to their minds? If, on the other hand, the 
teacher is really skillful, and excites in them a 
spirit of inquiry and leads them in suitable ways 
to observe, to think, and to feel that the school 
is a happy place even for children, it is one great 
point gained. 



118 EIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

General exercise. — A specimen. 

I may suggest, here, then, that it would be 
well to set apart a few minutes once a day for a 
general exercise in the school, when it should be 
required of all to lay by their studies, assume an 
erect attitude, and give their undivided attention 
to whatever the teacher may bring before them. 
Such a course would have its physiological ad- 
vantages. It would relieve the minds of all for 
a few minutes. The erect attitude is a healthful 
one. It would also serve as a short respite from 
duty and thus refresh the older scholars for 
study. I may further add, that, for the benefit 
of these small children, every general exercise 
should be conducted with reference to them, and 
such topics should be introduced as they can 
understand. 

It is the purpose of the following remarks to 
give a specimen of the manner of conducting 
such exercises, for a few days, with reference to 
waking up mind in the school and also in the 
district. 

Let us suppose that the teacher has promised 
that on the next day, at ten minutes past ten 
o'clock, he shall request the whole school to give 
their attention five minutes, while he shall bring 
something there to which he shall call the atten- 
tion, especially of the little boys and girls under 
seven years of age. This very announcement will 
excite an interest both in school and at home ; 
and when the children come in the morning, 
they will be more wakeful than usual till the 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 119 

A fixed time.— Preparation.— Ear of corn. 

fixed time arrives. It is very important that this 
time should be fixed, and that the utmost punct- 
uality should be observed, both as to the begin- 
ning and ending of the exercise at the precise 
time. 

The teacher, it should be supposed, has not 
made such an announcement without consider- 
ing what he can do when the time arrives. He 
should have a well-digested plan of operation, 
and one which he knows beforehand that he can 
successfully execute. 

Let us suppose that in preparing for this ex- 
ercise he looks about him to find some object 
which he can make his text ; and that he finds 
upon his study-table an ear of corn. He thinks 
carefully what he can do with it, and then with 
a smile of satisfaction he puts it in his pocket 
for the "general exercise." 

In the morning, he goes through the accus- 
tomed duties of the first hour, perhaps more 
cheerfully than usual, because he finds there is 
more of animation and wakefulness in the school. 
At the precise time, he gives the signal agreed 
upon, and all the pupils drop their studies and 
sit erect. When there is perfect silence and strict 
attention by all, he takes from his pocket the ear 
of corn and in silence holds it up before the 
school. The children smile, for it is a familiar 
object ; and they probably did not suspect they 
were to be fed with corn. 

Teacher. "Now, children," addressing himself 



120 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Teacher's address to the children.— Their answers. 

to the youngest, "I am going to ask you only 
one question to-day about this ear of corn. If 
you can answer it I shall be very glad ; if the 
little boys and girls upon the front seat can not 
give the answer, I will let those in the next seat 
try ; and so on till all have tried, unless our time 
should expire before the right answer is given. 
I shall not be surprised' if none of you give the 
answer I am thinking of. As soon as I ask the 
question, those who are under seven years old, 
and think they can give an answer, may raise 
their hand. What is this ear of corn for?" 

Several of the children raise their hands, and 
the teacher points to one after another in order, 
and they rise and give their answers. 

Mary. It is to feed the geese with. 

John. Yes, and the hens too, and the pigs. 

Sarah. My father gives corn to the cows. 

By this time the hands of the youngest scholars 
are all down ; for having been taken a little by 
surprise, their knowledge is exhausted. So the 
teacher says that those between seven and ten 
years of age may raise their hands. Several in- 
stantly appear. The teacher again indicates, by 
pointing, those who may give the answer. 

Charles. My father gives corn to the horses 
when the oats are all gone. 

Daniel. We give it to the oxen and cows, and 
we fat the hogs upon corn. 

Laura. It is good to eat. They shell it from 
the cobs and send it to mill, and it is ground 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 121 

Closing at the time.— Hear no more till to-morrow. 

into meal. They make bread of the meal, and 
we eat it. 

This last pupil has looked a little further into 
domestic economy than those who answered be- 
fore her. But by this time, perhaps before, the 
five minutes have been nearly expended, and yet 
several hands are up, and the faces of several 
are beaming with eagerness to tell their thoughts. 
Let the teacher then say, " We will have no more 
answers to-day. You may think of this matter 
till to-morrow, and then I will let you try again. 
I am sorry to tell you that none of you have 
mentioned the use I was thinking of, though I 
confess I expected it every minute. I shall not 
be surprised if no one of you give this answer 
to-morrow. I shall now put the ear of corn in 
my desk, and no one of you must speak to me 
about it till to-morrow. You may now take your 
studies." 

The children now breathe more freely, while 
the older ones take their studies, and the next 
class is called. In order to success, x it is abso- 
lutely necessary that the teacher should positively 
refuse to hold any conversation with the children 
on the subject till the next time for " general 
exercise ". 

During the remainder of the forenoon, the 
teacher will very likely observe some signs of 
thoughtfulness on the part of those little children 
who have been habitually dull before. And per- 
haps some child, eager to impart a new discovery, 



122 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

The children go home. — They observe. — They inquire. 

will seek an opportunity to make it known during 
the forenoon. "Wait till to-morrow" should be 
the teacher's only reply. 

Now let us follow these children as they are 
dismissed, while they bend their steps toward 
home. They cluster together in groups as they 
go down the hill, and they seem to be earnestly 
engaged in conversation. 

"I don't believe it has any other use," says 
John. 

"O, yes, it has," says Susan; "our teacher 
would not say so if it had not. Besides, did you 
not see what a knowing look he had, when he 
drew up his brow and said he guessed we couldn't 
find it out?" 

"Well, I mean to ask my mother," says little 
Mary; "I guess she can tell." 

By and by, as they pass a field of corn, Samuel 
sees a squirrel running across the street, with 
both his cheeks distended with "plunder". 

At home, too, the ear of corn is made the 
subject of conversation. " What is an ear of corn 
for, mother?" said little Mary, as soon as they 
have taken a seat at the dinner-table. 

Mother. An ear of corn, child ? why, don't you 
know? It is to feed the fowls, and the pigs, and 
the cattle ; and we make bread of it, too 

Mary. Yes, we told all that, but the teacher 
says that is not all. 

Mother. The teacher ? 

Mary. Yes, ma'am, the teacher had an ear of 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 123 

Their family become interested. — Seqond day. — Anecdote. 

corn at school, and he asked us what it was for; 
and after we had told him every thing we could 
think of, he said there was another thing 
still. Now, I want to find out, so that I can tell 
him. 

The consequence of this would be that the 
family, father, mother, and older brothers and 
sisters, would resolve themselves into a committee 
of the whole on the ear of corn. The same, or 
something like this, would be true in other fami- 
lies in the district ; and by the next morning, 
several children would have something further to 
communicate on the subject. The hour would 
this day be awaited with great interest, and the 
first signal would produce perfect silence. 

The teacher now takes the ear of corn from 
the desk and displays it before the school; and 
quite a number of hands are instantly raised as 
if eager to be the first to tell what other use they 
have discovered for it. 

The teacher now says pleasantly, "The use I 
am thinking of, you have all observed, I have no 
doubt ; it is a very important use indeed ; but as 
it is a little out of the common course, I shall 
not be surprised if you can not give it. However, 
you may try." 

" It is good to boil ! " * says little Susan, almost 
springing from the floor as she speaks. 

* The children themselves 'will be sure to find some new answers to 
such questions as the above. In giving in substance this lecture to 
a gathering of teachers in the autumn of 1845, in one of the busy vil- 
lages of New York, where also the pupils of one of the district schools 



124 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Older pupils interested.— The secret revealed. 

"And it is for squirrels to eat," says little 
Samuel. " I saw one carry away a whole mouth- 
ful yesterday from the corn-field." 

Others still mention other uses, which they 
have observed. They mention other animals 
which feed upon it, or other modes of cooking it. 
The older pupils begin to be interested, and they 
add to the list of uses named. Perhaps, however, 
none will name the one the teacher has in his 
own mind ; he should cordially welcome the 
answer if perchance it is given ; if none should 
give it, he may do as he thinks best about giving 
it himself on this occasion. Perhaps, if there 
is time he may do so, — after the following 
manner. 

"I have told you that the answer I was seek- 
ing was a very simple one ; it is something you 
have all observed, and you may be a little disap- 
pointed when I tell you. The use I have been 
thinking of for the ear of corn is this : — It is to 
plant. It is for seed, to propagate that species of 
plant called corn." Here the children may look 

were present by invitation, I had described a process similar to that 
which has been dwelt upon above. I had given the supposed answers for 
the first day, and had described the children as pressing the question at 
home. When I had proceeded as far as to take up the ear of corn the 
second day, and had spoken of the possibility that the true answer to the 
question might not be given, I turned almost instinctively to the class 
of children at my right, saying, " Now what is the ear of corn for f " A little 
boy, some six years of age, who had swallowed every word, and whose 
face glowed as if there was not room enough for his soul within him, 
bounded upon his feet, and forgetting the publicity of the place and the 
gravity of the chairman of the meeting, clapping his hands forcibly to- 
gether, "IPs to pop!'''' he exclaimed emphatically, very much to the 
amusement of the audience. His mind had been waked up. 






RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 125 



A new question. — Another. 



disappointed, as much, as to say, "we knew that 
before." 

The teacher continues: "And this is a very 
important use for the corn ; for if for one year 
none should be planted, and all the ears that 
grew the year before should be consumed, we 
should have no more corn. This, then, was the 
great primary design of the corn ; the other uses 
you have named were merely secondary. But I 
mean to make something more of my ear of 
corn. My next question is : — Do other plants 

HAVE SEEDS?"* 

Here is a new field of inquiry. Many hands 
are instantly raised ; but as the five minutes by 
this time have passed, leave them to answer at 
the next time. 

" Have other plants seeds ? " the children be- 
gin to inquire in their own minds, and each be- 
gins to think over a list of such plants as he is 
familiar with. When they are dismissed, they look 
on the way home at the plants by the roadside, 
and when they reach home they run to the gar- 
den. At the table they inquire of their parents, 
or their brothers and sisters. 

At the next exercise, they will have more than 
they can tell in five minutes, as the results 
of their own observation and research. When 
enough has been said by the children as to the 
plants which have seeds, the next question may 
be: — Do all plants have seeds? This question 

* Plant is here used in the popular sense. 



126 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

The recipient has gained capacity.— The elm. 

will lead to much inquiry at home wherever bot- 
any is not well understood. There are many who 
are not aware that all plants have seeds. Very 
likely the ferns (common brakes) will be noticed 
by the children themselves. They may also name 
several other plants which do not exhibit their 
apparatus for seed-bearing very conspicuously. 
This will prepare the way for the teacher to im- 
part a little information. Nor is there any harm 
in his doing so, whenever he is satisfied that the 
mind has been suitably exercised. The mind is 
no longer a "passive recipient"; and he may be 
sure that by inquiry it has increased its capacity 
to contain, and any fact which now answers in- 
quiry, will be most carefully stored up. 

The next question may be : — Do teees have 
seeds? As the children next go out, their eyes 
are directed to the trees above them. The 
fruit-trees, the walnut, the oak, and perhaps the 
pine, will be selected as those which have seeds. 
They will, however, mention quite a number 
which do not, or which, they think, do not have 
seeds. Among these may be the elm, the birch, 
and the Lombardy poplar. After hearing their 
opinions, and the results of their observations, 
take one of their exceptions as the subject of the 
next question : — Does the Elm have seeds ? * This 
will narrow their inquiries down to a specific 

* It is a very common opinion in the country that the elm has no 
seeds. I once knew a man who grew gray under the shade of a large 
elm, and who insisted that it never bore any seeds. 



ItlGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 127 



A promise.— A caution.— Example of teaching. 

case, and every elm in the district will be in- 
quired of as to its testimony on this point. 

If the children can any of them collect and 
give the truth in the matter, so much the better ; 
but if they, after inquiring of their parents and 
their grandparents, as I have known a whole 
school to do, come back insisting that the elm 
has no seeds ; after hearing their reasons for their 
belief, and perhaps the opinions of their parents, 
you may promise to tell them something about it 
at the next exercise. This will again awaken ex- 
pectation, not only among the children, but among 
the parents. All will wish to know what you 
have to bring out. 

Great care should be taken not to throw any 
disparagement upon the opinions of parents. Per- 
haps, after giving the signal for attention, you 
may proceed as follows : — 

" Has the elm-tree any seeds ? Perhaps, chil- 
dren, you may recollect after the cold winter has 
passed away, that, along in the latter part of 
March, or the first of April, we sometimes have 
a warm, sunny day. The birds, perhaps, appear 
and begin to sing a little, and as you look up to 
the elm, you notice that its buds seem to swell, 
and you think it is going to put out its leaves. 
Everybody says we are going to have an early 
spring. But after this the cold frosty nights and 
windy days come on again, and then you think 
the leaves can not come out so early. Now, if 
you observe carefully, the leaves do not come out 



128 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Elm-dust.— A new question. 

till about the 20th of May, or perhaps the first 
of June. Did you ever see any thing like what 
I have described?" 

" Yes, sir, we remember that." 

"Well, the next time you see the buds begin 
to open, just break off a twig of a good large 
tree, and you will find they are not the leaf- 
buds. But if you will watch them carefully for 
two or three weeks, you will find that each bud 
will put out some beautiful little flowers, brightly 
colored, and slightly fragrant. If you will still 
continue to watch them, you will find, as the 
flowers fall off, that seed vessels are formed, 
shaped very much like the parsnip seed. These 
will grow larger and larger every day, and by 
and by they will turn brown and look as if they 
were ripe. Just about this time the leaves will 
come out ; and soon after these seeds, during 
some windy day or night, will all fall off. The 
ground will be covered with thousands of them. 
Perhaps you have seen this." 

"Yes, sir," says John, "Grandpa calls that 
elm-dust^ 

"Perhaps next year you can watch this and 
ask your parents to examine it with you. But 
the five minutes are ended." 

Now, information thus communicated will 
never be forgotten. The mind, having been put 
upon the stretch, is no longer a passive recip- 
ient. 

The next question : — How are seeds dissemi- 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 129 



Another question.— Results.— Still another. 



nated? — (of course explaining the term "dissem- 
inated ".) 

This will bring in a fund of information from 
the pupils. They will mention that the thistle 
seed flies, and so does the seed of the milkweed ; 
that the burs of the burdock, and some other 
seeds are provided with hooks, by which they 
attach themselves to the hair of animals or the 
clothing of men, and ride away to their resting- 
place, which may be a hundred miles off. Some 
fall into the water and sail away to another 
shore. Some, like the seed of the Touch-me-not, 
are thrown at a distance by the bursting of the 
elastic pericarp ; others, as nuts and acorns, are 
carried by squirrels and buried beneath the 
leaves. These facts would mostly be noticed by 
children, when once put upon observation. 

Next question : — Are plants propagated in any 
other way than by seeds f 

This question would call their attention to the 
various means of natural and artificial propaga- 
tion — by layers, by offsets, by suckers, by graft- 
ing, by inoculation or budding, etc., etc. 

Again : — Have any plants more ways than one 
of natural propagation ? Some have one way 
only, — by seeds, as the annual plants ; some have 
two, — by seeds and by roots, as the potato ; some 
have three, — as the tiger lily, by side-bulbs from 
the roots, by stalk-bulbs, and by the seeds. This 
can be extended indefinitely. 



180 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Remarks.— Effects upon children.— Advantages of observation. 

SECTION V.— REMARKS. 

Let it be remembered that the above has been 
given simply as a specimen of what could easily 
be done by an ingenious teacher, with as com- 
mon a thing as an ear of corn for the text. Any 
other thing would answer as well. A chip, a 
tooth or a bone of an animal, a piece of iron, a 
feather, or any other object, could be made the 
text for adroitly bringing in the uses of wood, 
the food and habits of animals, the use and com- 
parative value of metals, the covering of birds, 
their migration, the covering of animals, etc., etc. 
Let the teacher but think what department he 
will dwell upon, and then he can easily select his 
text ; and if he has any tact, he can keep the 
children constantly upon inquiry and observation. 

The advantages of the above course over sim- 
ply lecturing to them on certain subjects, that is, 
over the pouring-in process, are many and great. 
Some of the most obvious I will briefly state. 

1. It immediately puts the minds of the chil- 
dren into a state of vigorous activity. They feel 
that they are no longer passive recipients. They 
are incited to discover and ascertain for them- 
selves. They are, therefore, profitably employed 
both in and out of school, and as a consequence 
are more easily governed. A habit of observa- 
tion is cultivated in them ; and what an advan- 
tage is this for a child ! It is almost unnecessary 
to remark that many people go through the 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 131 

Children should be taught to think.— Parents benefited. 



world without seeing half the objects which are 
• brought within their reach. It would be the 
same to them if their eyes were half the time 
closed. If they travel through a country pre- 
senting the most beautiful scenery or the most 
interesting geological features, they see nothing. 
They grow up among all the wonders of God's 
works, amid all the displays of his wisdom, of his 
design, to no purpose. They study none of the 
plans of nature ; and by all the millions of ar- 
rangements which God has made, to delight the 
eye, to gratify the taste, to excite the emotions 
of pleasure instead of pain, they are neither the 
happier nor the wiser. What a blessing, then, it 
is to a child, to put his mind upon inquiry ; to 
open his eyes to observe what his Creator in- 
tended his intelligent creatures should behold, of 
his goodness, his wisdom, his power. And how far 
superior is he who teaches a child to see for him- 
self and to think for himself, to him who sees 
and thinks for the child, and thus practically in- 
vites the pupil to close his own eyes and grope 
in darkness through the instructive journey of 
life. 

2. It is of great service to the parents in the 
district to have this waking-up process in opera- 
tion. Our children are sometimes our best teach- 
ers. Parents are apt to grow rusty in their ac- 
quirements, and it is no doubt one of the designs 
of providence that the inquisitiveness of child- 
hood should preserve them from sinking into 



132 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Take an interest in the school. — Teacher is improved. 

mental inactivity. Who can hear the inquiries of 
his own child after knowledge, without a desire 
to supply his wants. Now it is right for the 
teacher to use this instrumentality to wake up 
mind in his district. Parents, by the course I 
have recommended, very soon become interested 
in these daily questions of the teacher ; and they 
are often as eager to know what is the next 
question as the children are to report it. This 
course, then, will supply profitable topics of con- 
versation at the fireside, and very likely will en- 
courage also the pursuit of useful reading. It 
will, moreover, soon awaken a deeper interest in 
the school on the part of the parents. They will 
begin to inquire of one another as to this new 
measure ; and when they find by conference that 
the feeling in this matter is becoming general, 
they will desire to visit the school to witness this 
as well as the other operations of the teacher. 
This will secure parental co-operation, and thus 
in every way the influence of the school will be 
heightened. It is no small thing for a teacher to 
enlist the interest of his patrons in the success 
of his school ; and this is the most happily done, 
when it is achieved through the medium of the 
pupils themselves. 

3. It wakes up the teacher's own mind. This 
is by no means the least important point to be 
gained. The teacher, by the very nature of his 
employment, by daily confinement in an un- 
healthy atmosphere, by teaching over and over 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 133 

The teacher's temptations. — He must improve his own mind. 

again that with which he is quite familiar, by 
boarding with people who are inclined to be so- 
cial, and by the fatigue and languor with which 
he finds himself oppressed every night, is strongly 
tempted to neglect his own improvement. There 
are but few who rise above this accumulation of 
impediments and go on in spite of them to emi- 
nence in the profession. A large proportion of 
all who teach rely upon the attainments with 
which they commence ; and in the course of two 
or three years, finding themselves behind the age, 
they abandon the employment. This is very nat- 
ural. Any man who treads in a beaten track, 
like a horse in a mill, must become weary, how- 
ever valuable the product may be which he 
grinds out. It is essential that he should keep 
his own interest awake by some exercise of his 
ingenuity, and that he should compel himself to 
be industrious by undertaking that which will 
absolutely demand study. The above process will 
do this ; and while he may have the exquisite 
pleasure of seeing the growth of his pupils' minds, 
he may also have the higher satisfaction of feel- 
ing the growth of his own. 

I must here add, that it has not been my in- 
tention, in what I have said, to inculcate the idea 
that the study of books should in the least de- 
gree be abated to make room for this process of 
tvaking up mind. The various branches are to 
be pursued, and as diligently pursued, as ever 



134 EIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

Books not to he neglected. — Given only as a specimen. 

before. The time to be set apart for this exercise 
should be short, — never probably to exceed five 
minutes. It is to come in when the scholars need 
rest for a moment, and when, if not employed 
about this, they would probably be doing nothing, 
or, perhaps, worse than nothing. It should be 
managed with care and should never be made a 
hobby by teachers, as if it were of more impor- 
tance than any thing else. One secret of success 
in this — as, indeed, in every thing — is, that it 
should not be continued too long at once. The 
pupils should be left "longing — not loathing". 

Let me again remind the reader that I have 
given the above as a specimen. The choice of 
the ear of corn was merely accidental ; it hap- 
pened to lie on my table when I wanted a text. 
The teacher should look upon this simply as a 
specimen, and then choose his own subjects. The 
main point aimed at is this : — Never ask leading 
questions, which your scholars can hardly fail to 
answer ; and never lecture to your pupils till you 
have somehow first kindled in them a living de- 
sire to know ; that is, avoid alike the " drawing- 
out " and the " pouring-in " i3rocess. Rather let it 
be your object to excite inquiry by a question 
they can not answer without thought and obser- 
vation, — and such a question as they would deem 
it disgraceful not to be able to answer. This, 
adroitly done, is "waking up mind". 

Within the last few years, a great extension 
has been given to oral instruction, as distin- 



RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 135 

Oral instruction, its use and abuse. 



guished from text-book instruction ; and this re- 
action has now gone to such an extreme that 
there is a marked tendency to regard the use of 
books as an evidence of a poor quality of teach- 
ing. It has been assumed that the ideal teaching 
is that which causes the pupil to discover, or at 
least to rediscover, every thing for himself. It 
seems to be forgotten by some that there is 
knowledge, the reproduction of which, without 
the aid of books, is even inconceivable ; and that 
there is other knowledge, the reproduction of 
which, without the aid of books, though conceiv- 
able, is practically impossible ; and that in all 
cases, capitalized knowledge is accessible only 
through books. "Language," says J. S. Mill, "is 
the depository of the accumulated body of expe- 
rience to which all former ages have contributed 
their part, and which is the inheritance of all yet 
to come." (Logic, p. 418.) The misuse of books 
should not be taken as an argument for their 
disuse. An intelligent instructor will not allow a 
pupil to confound words with ideas, but will 
teach the art of interpreting language. "Words," 
says Hobbes, " are wise men's counters ; they do 
but reckon by them : but they are the money of 
fools." (Leviathan, Chap. IV.) 

The assumption, sometimes made, that in- 
struction by word of mouth is necessarily bet- 
ter than the same instruction given in the written 
form, is thus disposed of by Mr. Bain : " The sug- 
gestion is often made and is probably acted on 



136 RIGHT MODES OF TEACHING. 

The preparation of an improved book. 

by some teachers, to teach grammar without 
books, on the assumption that the difficulties are 
not inherent in the subject, but come into being 
when it is reduced to form and put into the pu- 
pil's hand in print. There must be some fallacy 
here. What is printed is only what is proper to 
to be said by word of mouth ; and if the teacher 
can express himself more clearly than the best 
existing book, his words should be written down 
and take the place of the book. No matter what 
may be the peculiar felicity of the teacher's 
method, it may be given in print, to be imitated 
by others, and so introduce a better class of 
books ; the reform that proposes to do away with 
books entirely, thus ending in the preparation of 
another book." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 

IN considering a teacher's qualifications, the 
power of exciting an interest in the recita- 
tions of his school may not be overlooked. No 
man can be successful for any length of time 
without this. This comprises what is usually im- 
plied by aptness to teach. All men have not 
this faculty by nature in an equal degree. Some 
may talk for an hour upon an interesting topic 
in the presence of children without commanding 
their attention ; while there are others who can 
take even a commonplace subject and secure for 
any length of time an all-absorbing interest in 
every word. This difference is seen in every 
grade of public speakers and in all descriptions 
of writers; but perhaps more strikingly than 
anywhere else, it is observable among teachers. 
Enter one ■ school, and you may notice that the 
scholars are dull and listless ; indifference sits 
undisturbed upon their brows ; or perhaps they 
are driven by the activity of their own natures 
to some expedient to interest themselves, while 
the teacher is, with very commendable spirit, 
laboriously — perhaps learnedly — explaining some 
principle or fact designed for their edification. 



138 CONDUCTING BECITATIONS. 



A contrast.— Not always a natural gift. 



The secret is, he has not yet learned to awaken 
their attention ; he fails to excite their interest. 

Pass to another school. A breathless silence 
pervades the room; the countenances of the chil- 
dren, upturned toward the teacher, beam with 
delight. As he kindles into earnestness and elo- 
quence, they kindle into responsive enthusiasm. 
Whenever his eye meets theirs, he sees — he feels 
the glow radiated by the fire he is lighting in 
their souls, and his own gathers new warmth 
and enthusiasm in return. Such a man is apt to 
teach; and you could scarcely break the spell by 
which he holds his class, " though you should give 
them for playthings, shining fragments broken 
from off the sun ". 

He who possesses this gift naturally, has very 
great advantage as a teacher to begin with. The 
ability to tell well what he knows, is of more con- 
sequence to the teacher, than the greatest attain- 
ments without the power to communicate them. 
Combine high attainments with the ability to tell, 
and you have the accomplished teacher. 

But this power to communicate is not neces- 
sarily a natural gift; it comes not always by 
intuition. It can be acquired. It is founded in 
philosophy ; and he who can understand any 
thing of the workings of ^his own mind, who can 
revert to the mental processes he went through 
in order to comprehend a principle, who can go 
back to that state of mind he was in before he 
comprehended it, and then, by one step more, can 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 189 



How acquired.— Natural order. 



put himself in the place of the child he is teach- 
ing, realizing exactly his perplexities and feeling 
his precise wants, can become the apt teacher. 
Those who fail in this are usually those who 
have forgotten the steps they took to acquire 
their own knowledge, or perhaps who never no- 
ticed what steps they did take. 

To acquire this rare qualification should be 
the constant study of the teacher. To this end 
he should recall, as far as possible, the operations 
of his own mind in childhood. By studying his 
own mind, he learns, often most effectually, what 
he needs to know of others. Whenever he is pre- 
paring to teach any principle or fact to others, let 
him ask himself questions like the following: — 
What was the dark point in this, when I studied 
it ? Where did my mind labor most ? What point 
did my teacher fail to explain? Such questions 
will frequently suggest the very difficulty which 
perplexes every mind in the same process. Again, 
the following inquiries may be very useful : — In 
studying this, what was the first point which 
appeared clear to me? After this, what was the 
second step, and how did that follow the first? 
The next in order? And the next? Was this 
the natural order ? If not, what is the natural 
order? The right answers to these questions will 
suggest the course to be pursued in the instruc- 
tion of a class. 

The teacher can scarcely ask a more impor- 
tant question than this: — What is the natural 



140 CONDUCTING KECITATIONS. 

Science of teaching.— Thorough knowledge. 

order of presenting a given subject ? The ability 
to determine this, is what constitutes in a great 
degree the science of teaching. This inquiry- 
should occupy much thought, because a mistake 
here is disastrous, and ever will be as long as 
divine wisdom is superior to human. He who 
can ascertain the order of nature, will be most 
sure of exciting an interest in the subject he is 
endeavoring to teach. 

Some further suggestions as to conducting 
school recitations are contained in the following 
paragraphs. 

1. The teacher should thoroughly understand 
what he attempts to teach. It is destructive of all 
life in the exercise, if the teacher is constantly 
chained down to the text-book. I have no objec- 
tion, indeed, that he should take his text-book 
with him to the class, and that he should occa- 
sionally refer to it to refresh his own memory or 
to settle a doubt. But who does not know that 
a teacher who is perfectly familiar with what is 
to be taught, has ten times the vivacity of one 
who is obliged to follow the very letter of the 
book? His own enthusiasm glows in his coun- 
tenance, sparkles in his eye, and leaps from his 
tongue. He watches the halting of the pupil, 
perceives his difficulty, devises his expedient for 
illustrating the dark point in some new way, and, 
at the proper moment, renders just the amount 
of assistance which the pupil needs. Not con- 
fined to the text, he has the use of his eyes ; and 



CONDUCTING EECITATIONS. 141 

Printed questions.— Special preparation. 



when he speaks or explains, he can accompany 
his remark with a quickening look of intelligence. 
In this way his class is enlivened. They respect 
him for his ready attainment, and they are fired 
with a desire to be his equal. 

How different is it with a teacher who knows 
nothing of the subject but what is contained in 
the text before him, and who knows that only 
as he reads it during the intervals occasioned by 
the hesitations of the class. Every question he 
proposes is printed at the bottom of the page ; 
and as soon as he reads the question, without a 
glance at the pupil, his eye sets out on a chase 
after the answer in the text. If the scholar has 
not already been stupefied by such teaching, and 
happens to give an intelligent answer, yeb not in 
the precise language of the book, he is set right 
by the teacher's reading the very words, — just so 
much detached from the sentence, as he fancies 
was intended to answer that one question ! In 
this way he discourages thought in his pupils, 
and sets a bounty on mechanical study. In this 
way, too, he congeals whatever of interest they 
bring with them to the recitation, and they sink 
into indifference, — or, following the instincts of 
their nature, they seek occupation in play or mis- 
chief, even under the sound of his voice ! 

2. The teacher should specially prepare him- 
self for each lesson he assigns. This is naturally 
suggested by what has just been said. The 
teacher's memory needs to be refreshed. We all 



142 CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 

The tables turned.— Commonplace-book.— Its use. 

know how difficult it would be to recite a lesson, 
in geometry for instance, weeks after studying it. 
It is so in other things. Now, the teacher should 
be so familiar with the lesson which he proposes 
to hear recited, that he could recite it himself as 
perfectly as he would desire his scholars to do it. 
This is seldom the case. I have heard a teacher, 
with the text-book in his hands, complain of the 
dullness or inaccuracy of his classes, when, if the 
tables had been turned, and the pupils allowed 
to ask the questions, the teacher would scarcely 
have recited as well. And I may add, this is no 
very uncommon thing! If any one is startled at 
this assertion, let him request a friend, in whom 
he can confide, to ask him the questions of a 
particular lesson in geography, or history, or 
grammar. The teacher should daily study his 
class lessons. This will enable him the better 
to assign his lessons judiciously. In this daily 
study, he should master the text-booh upon the 
subject ; and, more than this, he should consider 
what collateral matter he can bring in to illus- 
trate the lesson. He should draw upon the re- 
sources of his own mind, — upon the treasures of 
his commonplace-book* — upon the contents of 

* It is an excellent plan for every teacher to keep a commonplace- 
book of considerable size, different portions of it being set apart for the 
different subjects upon which he is to give instruction. On the first 
twenty pages, " Geography " may be the head,— the next twenty pages 
maybe set apart for " History,"— twenty more maybe assigned to " Read- 
ing,"— and a like number to "Arithmetic," "Grammar," "Spelling," 
" Writing," etc., reserving quite a space for " Miscellaneous Matter." 
This would make a large book ; but when it is remembered that it is to 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 143 

Improvement in teaching power. — Use of the eye. 

some encyclopedia, — upon any source, from 
whence he can obtain a supply of knowledge for 
his purpose. This will improve his own mind, 
and he will be encouraged, as from time to time 
he teaches the same branch, to find that he is 
able to do better than ever before, and that, in- 
stead of becoming weary with repetition, he is 
more and more enthusiastic over the subject. 

Going thus to his class — so full of the subject, 
that were the text-book annihilated, he could 
make another and better one — he will have no 
difficulty to secure attention. As he speaks, his 
eye accompanies his word, and as his pupils an- 
swer, he sees the expression of their countenances ; 
and what a world of meaning there is in this ex- 
pression ! It betrays, better than words can do, 
the clearness or obscurity of the mind's percep- 
tion, when a truth is presented. How different 
the beaming of the eye when the soul appre- 
hends, from that almost idiotic stare at vacuity 
when words are used without import. And how 
necessary it is that the teacher should be free to 
observe the inward workings of the soul as indi- 
cated upon the countenance. 

be used for several years, it is well to have it large enough to contain a 
large amount of matter. Now, whenever the teacher hears a lecture on 
a peculiar method of teaching either of these branches, let him note the 
prominent parts of it under the proper head, and especially t/ie illustrations. 
When he reads or hears an anecdote illustrating G-eography, History, or 
Grammar, let it be copied under the proper head. If it illustrates Ge- 
ography, let the name, of the place stand at its head. When he visits a 
school, and listens to a new explanation or a new process, let him note it 
under its head. In this way he may collect a thousand valuable tilings 
to be used with judgment in his school. 



144 CONDUCTING RECITATIONS, 



Correct language.—" Sums."—" Question."— Anecdote. 

3. The teacher should be able to use our lan- 
guage fluently and correctly. In this many are 
deficient. They hesitate and stammer, and after 
all, express their ideas in vague terms, and per- 
haps by the use of inaccurate or inelegant lan- 
guage. A teacher in no way gives so effectual 
instruction in grammar as by his own use of our 
language ; and there can be no sight more morti- 
fying than that of a teacher laboring to fix in 
the minds of his class some rule of syntax, when 
his own language at the very moment shows an 
entire disregard of the rule. It is very common 
to hear teachers talk of "sums" to their classes 
in arithmetic, and even to ask them to do "sums" 
in subtraction or division ! The term " question " 
is often as improperly applied, when no question 
is asked. The teacher should -be accurate in the 
use of terms. " Question " is sometimes the proper 
word ; sometimes, "problem "; and sometimes, " ex- 
ercise " or "example", may with more propriety 
be used : but "sum" means the amount of several 
numbers when added, and it should not be ap- 
plied as the name of an exercise. Some teachers 
use the terms ratio and proportion* interchange- 
ably, as if they were synonyms. Such inaccu- 
racies in the teacher will be sure to be repro- 



* We are reminded by this of the college student who was exam- 
ined rather closely by his tutor. " What is ratio ? " inquired the tutor. 
"Ratio? "said the young man; "ratio is proportion." "Well, what is 
proportion?" "Proportion? proportion is ratio." "Well, then," said 
the tutor, looking perplexed, " what are both together? " " Excuse me,'? 
said the pupil, " / can define but one at a time! " 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 145 

Animation.— Children imitative.— Attitude. 



duced in the school, and it is a great evil for 
the scholar to acquire a careless habit in the use 
of terms. 

4. He should have proper animation himself. 
Horace Mann describes some of the Scotch teach- 
ers as working themselves up into a feverish ex- 
citement in the presence of their classes, and the 
classes in turn as literally bounding from the 
floor when they answer their hasty questions. 
Now, while I think these Scotch teachers go quite 
too far, I do think that many of our own teachers 
come short of a proper standard of animation. 
A teacher should be ready, without being rapid ; 
animated, without being boisterous. Children are 
imitative beings; and it is astonishing to observe 
how very soon they catch the manners of the 
teacher. If he is heavy and plodding in his 
movements, they will very soon be dull and 
drowsy in theirs ; then, if he speaks in a sprightly 
tone, and moves about with an elastic step, they 
almost realize a resurrection from the dead. If 
he appears absent-minded, taking but little in- 
terest in the lesson which is recited, they will be 
as inattentive, at least, as he ; while, if all his 
looks and actions indicate that the subject is of 
some importance, he will gain their attention. 
Nor can I refrain in this place from suggesting 
to the teacher the importance of regarding his 
manners, while engaged in conducting a recita- 
tion. His attitude should not be one of indolence 
or coarseness, — and when he moves from his seat, 



146 CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 

The attention of the class.— A routine.—" Books but helps." 

and appears at the blackboard to illustrate any 
point, it should be done gracefully, and with a 
constant regard to the fact, that every look and 
every motion teaches. 

5. He should never proceed without the atten- 
tion of the class. A loss of interest is sure to 
follow a want of attention. Besides, a habit of 
inattention, while it is very common, is also a 
great calamity to the person who falls into it 
during life. Many a sermon is lost upon a por- 
tion of the audience in our churches every Sab- 
bath from this cause. When the attention is 
aroused, the impression made is enduring ; and 
one idea then communicated is worth a hundred 
at any other time. 

6. Avoid a formal routine in teaching. Chil- 
dren are very apt to imbibe the notion that they 
study in order to recite. They have but little idea 
of any purpose of acquirement beyond recitation ; 
hence they study their text-book as mere words. 
The teacher should, as soon as possible, lead them 
to study the subject , using the book simply as an 
instrument. "Books are but helps "—should be- 
come their motto. In order to bring this about, 
the instructor would do well occasionally to leave 
entirely the order of the book, and question them 
on the topic they have studied. If they are pur- 
suing arithmetic, for instance, and they have 
carefully prepared a definite number of problems, 
it might be well to test their ability by giving 
them at the recitation, others of the teacher's 



CONDUCTING KECITATIONS. 147 



Utility. — Intelligible language. 



own preparing, involving an application of what 
they have learned to the business of life. This 
will lead them to study intelligently. Besides, as 
soon as they begin to see how their knowledge 
is to be useful to them, they have a new motive 
to exertion. They should be so taught as to dis- 
cover that grammar will improve their under- 
standing and use of language ; that writing will 
prepare them for business, and by enabling them 
to communicate with their friends, will add to 
their enjoyment ; and so of reading and the other 
branches. 

7. Be careful to use language ivhich is intel- 
ligible to children, whenever an explanation is 
given. The object of an explanation is to eluci- 
date, to make clearer. How is this object accom- 
plished when the explanation is less intelligible 
than the thing explained ? Suppose a child should 
ask her teacher to explain the cause of cold in 
winter and heat in summer ; in other words, the 
cause of the change of seasons. u O, yes," says 
he, pleasantly. " The annual revolution of the 
earth round the sun in connection with the obli- 
quity of the ecliptic, occasions the succession of 
the four seasons."* The child listens to these 
"words of learned length" and is astonished at 
the learning of her teacher ; but she has no 
clearer idea, than before, of the point she inquired 
about. 

Mr. S. R. Hall, in his lectures, gives the follow- 

* Worcester's Geography. 



148 CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 



A forcible illustration. 



ing forcible illustration of the same point. "Will 
you please tell me why I carry one for every 
ten?" said little Laura to her instructor. "Yes, 
my dear," said he, kindly. "It is because num- 
bers increase from right to left in a decimal 
ratio." Laura Sat and repeated it to herself 
two or three times, and then looked very sad. 
The master, as soon as he had answered, pursued 
his other business and did not notice her. But 
she was disappointed. She understood him no 
better than if he had used words of another lan- 
guage. "Decimal" and "ratio" were words that 
might have fallen on her ear before ; but if so, 
she understood them none the better for it. She 
looked in the dictionary and was disappointed 
again, and after some time, put away her arith- 
metic. When asked by her teacher why she did 
so, she replied, ' I don't like to study it ; I can't 
understand it.' 

" Now, the injury to little Laura was very great. 
She had commenced the study with interest ; she 
had learned to answer a great many questions in 
arithmetic, and had been pleased. She wac now 
using a slate and writing her figures on it, and 
had found the. direction to carry one for every 
ten. This she might have been made to under- 
stand. The master loved his scholars and wished 
to benefit them, but forgot that terms perfectly 
plain to him would be unintelligible to the child. 
From that moment, Laura disliked arithmetic, 
and every effort that could be used with her 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 149 

Honest confession, — not mystification.—" More requires more ! " 



could not efface the impression that it was a hard 
study, and she could not understand it." 

While upon this subject, I might urge that 
teachers should not resort to evasion when they 
are not able to explain. It is a much more hon- 
orable, and far more satisfactory course, for the 
teacher frankly to confess his inability to explain, 
than to indulge in some ridiculous mysticism to 
keep up the show of knowledge. I may never 
forget the passage I first made through the Rule 
of TJiree, and the manner in which my manifold 
perplexities respecting " direct and inverse " pro- 
portion were solved. "Sir," said I, after puzzling 
a long time over "more requiring more and less 
requiring less " — " will you tell me why I some- 
times multiply the second and third terms to- 
gether and divide by the first — and at other 
times multiply the jirst and second and divide 
by the third?" "Why, because more requires 
more sometimes, and sometimes it ' requires less — 
to be sure. Haven't you read the rule, my boy?" 
"Yes, sir, I can repeat the rule, but I don't un- 
derstand it." " Why, it is because ' more requires 
more and less requires less ' ! " " But why, sir, do 
I multiply as the rule says?" "Why, because 
'more requires more and less requires less' — see, 
the rule says so." "I know the rule says so, but 
I wished to understand why." "Why? why?" 
looking at me as if idiocy itself trembled before 
him—" why ? — why, because the rule says so ; 
don't you see it I — J£|p More requires more and 



150 CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 

Accurate and prompt recitation. — It saves time. 

less requires less ! " — and in the midst of this in- 
explicable combination of more and less, I shrunk 
away to my seat, blindly to follow the rule be- 
cause it said so. Such teaching as this is enough 
to stultify the most inquiring mind ; and it is to 
secure the blessing of relief from such influence 
to the children of any particular district, that we 
come to consider an occasional change of teachers 
a mitigated evil. 

8. Require prompt and accurate recitation. 
I know of nothing that will abate the interest of 
a class sooner than dull and dragging recitations. 
The temptation in such cases is very strong for 
the teacher to help the class by the "drawing- 
out process" before described. This, however, 
only makes the matter worse. The dull recitation 
calls for the teacher's aid ; and his aid reproduces 
the dull recitation. The only way is to stop at 
once, and refuse to proceed till the recitation can 
go alone. It is just as easy to have good lessons 
as poor ; and the teacher should have the energy 
to insist upon them. Mark the countenances of 
a class as they go to their seats after a good 
recitation. They feel that they have done some- 
thing, and they look as if they valued their 
teacher's approbation and their own so highly, 
that they will learn the next lesson still better. 

It is, moreover, a great saving of time, to have 
the lessons promptly recited. This saving will 
afford the opportunity to introduce those addi- 
tional illustrations I have before suggested, in 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 151 



Simultaneous recitation.— Its evils.— Sometimes allowable. 

order to excite a still deeper interest. It may 
sometimes, though not always, be well to make a 
prompt and perfect recitation the condition of 
introducing the additional matter. 

9. Rely not too much upon simultaneous reci- 
tation. This has become quite too fashionable of 
late. It had its origin in the large schools estab- 
lished some years since, known as Lancasterian 
schools, and perhaps was well enough adapted to 
schools kept upon that plan in large cities. But 
when this mode of reciting is adopted in our dis- 
trict and country schools, where the circumstances 
of large numbers and extreme backwardness are 
wanting, it is entirely uncalled for, and, like other 
city fashions transferred to the country, is really 
out of place. 

Seriously, I look upon this as one of the prom- 
inent faults in many of our schools. It destroys 
all independence in the pupil by taking away 
his individuality. He moves with the phalanx. 
Learning to rely on others, he becomes superficial 
in his lessons. He is tempted to indolence by a 
knowledge that his deficiencies will not stand out 
by themselves ; and he comforts himself after a 
miserable recitation with the consoling reflection 
that he has been able to conceal his want of 
thoroughness from his teacher. 

It may sometimes be useful. A few questions 
thus answered may serve to give animation to a 
class when their interest begins to flag ; but that 
which may serve as a stimulant must not be 



152 CONDUCTING EECITATIONS. 

The teacher makes his mark at recitation. 

relied on for nutrition. As an example of its 
usefulness, I have known a rapid reader tamed 
into due moderation by being put in companion- 
ship with others of slower speech, just as we 
tame a friskful colt by harnessing him into a 
team of grave old horses. But aside from some 
such definite purpose, I have seen no good come 
of this innovation. I am satisfied its prevalence 
is an evil, and worthy of the careful considera- 
tion of teachers. 

By the foregoing means, and others which will 
suggest themselves to the thoughtful teacher's 
mind, he can arouse the interest of his classes so 
that study will be more attractive than play. 
For this object every teacher should labor. It is 
of course impossible to give specific rules to meet 
every case ; it is not desirable to do it. The 
teacher, put upon the track, will easily devise his 
own expedients ; and his own, be it remembered, 
will usually be found the best for him. 

As a motive for every teacher to study care- 
fully the art of teaching well at the recitation, it 
should be borne in mind that then and there he 
comes before his pupils in a peculiar and promi- 
nent manner ; it is there his mind comes specially 
in contact with theirs, and there that he lays in 
them, for good or for evil, the foundations of 
their mental habits. It is at the recitation in a 
peculiar manner, that he makes his mark upon 
their minds ; and as the seal upon the wax, so 



CONDUCTING RECITATIONS. 153 

Attitude of attention important.— How secured. 

his mental character upon theirs leaves its im- 
press behind ! 

During the recitation, pupils should be kept in 
an attitude of constant attention, and this end 
may usually be secured as follows : Much is 
gained by massing pupils. There is always a 
great dissipation of nervous force in attempting 
to teach pupils who are scattered over a large 
area, for inattention is sure to result from such 
isolation. A long line should be broken up into 
two or three shorter lines, the shortest pupils in 
front, the tallest in the rear. In carrying forward 
the work of the recitation, the questions should 
always be asked before pupils are summoned to 
answer them ; and in calling up pupils to recite, 
there should be no fixed order, or no order that 
can be foreseen ; and where there is a strong 
tendency to inattention, one call should not ex- 
empt a pupil from further service. There are 
decided advantages in calling up pupils by means 
of cards on which their names are written. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 

IT is ever an interesting question to the teacher, 
and one which he should consider with great 
care — "How can I excite among my pupils an 
interest in their studies ? " The intelligent teacher 
feels that this is the great question ; for he fore- 
sees that, if he fails here, his difficulty in govern- 
ing his school will be very much increased. He 
therefore turns his attention with deep solicitude 
to the motives he may present, and the methods 
he may employ to awaken and keep alive the 
interest of the school. 

If he has reflected at all upon the subject, he 
has already arrived at the conviction, that it is 
nepessary for the good of all concerned that the 
interest awakened should be an abiding one ; that 
it should not only not abate during the term of 
school, but continue — nay, grow stronger and 
stronger — even after school -days have passed 
away. There is probably no greater mistake in 
education, than that of raising in school an arti- 
ficial excitement, which may aid perhaps in 
securing better recitations, but which will do 
nothing toward putting the mind into such a 
state, that it will press on in the pursuit of 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 155 

A common mistake.— Emulation.— Perplexity. 

knowledge even after the living teacher has closed 
his labors. 

The higher principles of our nature being 
aroused with difficulty, are too apt to be neglected 
by the teacher, and thus they remain in their 
original feebleness ; while he contents himself 
with appealing to our lower characteristics, — thus 
doing a lasting injury by unduly cultivating and 
strengthening them, at the same time that he 
awakens, after all, but a temporary interest. 

In view of the importance of the subject, and 
the difficulty of judging aright upon it, I shall 
make no apology for devoting a few pages to the 
consideration of 



SECTION I.— INCENTIVES TO STUDY— EMULATION. 

The teacher will find, in a greater or less de- 
gree, in the mind of every child, the principle of 
Emulation. It is a question very much debated 
of late, What shall he do with it? Much has 
been said and written on this question, and the 
ablest minds, both of past ages and the present, 
have given us their conclusions respecting it ; 
and it often increases the perplexity of the young 
teacher to find the widest difference of opinion 
on this subject among men upon whom in other 
things he would confidingly rely for guidance. 
Why, asks he, why is this? Is there no such 
thing as truth in this matter ? or have these men 
misunderstood each other ? When they have writ- 



156 EXCITING INTEKEST IN STUDY. 

Experimenting.— Its evil consequences. 

ten with so much ability and so much earnest- 
ness, — some zealously recommending emulation 
as a safe and desirable principle to be encouraged 
in the young, and others as warmly denouncing 
it as altogether unworthy and improper, — have 
they been thinking of the same thing f Thus 
perplexed with conflicting opinions, he is thrown 
back upon his own reflection for a decision ; or 
what is more common, he endeavors to find the 
truth by experimenting upon his pupils. He tries 
one course for one term, and a different one the 
next ; repeats both during the third, and still 
finds himself unsettled as he commences the 
fourth. Meantime, some of his experiments have 
wrought out a lasting injury upon the minds of 
his pupils ; for, if every teacher must settle every 
doubt by new experiments upon his classes, the 
progress that is made in the science and art of 
teaching must be at the untold expense of each 
new set of children ; — just as if the young doctor 
could take nothing as settled by the experience 
of his predecessors, but must try over again for 
himself the effect of all the various medical 
agents, in order to decide whether arsenic does 
corrode the stomach and produce death, — whether 
cantharides can be best applied inwardly or out- 
wardly, — whether mercury is most salutary when 
administered in ounces or grains, or whether re- 
pletion or abstinence is preferable in a fever ! 
When such is the course of a young practitioner 
in a community, who does not confidently expect 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 157 
Two senses.— Define the term's.— The good sense. 

the church-yard soon to become the most populous 
district, and the sexton to be the most thrifty 
personage in the village, unless indeed he too 
should become the subject of experiment? 

But is there not a good sense and a bad sense, 
associated with the term Emulation ; — and have 
not these eager disputants fallen into the same 
error, in this matter, that the two knights com- 
mitted, when they immolated each other in a 
contest about the question whether a shield was 
gold or silver, when each had seen but one side 
of it t I incline to the opinion that this is the 
case, — and that those who wax so warm in this 
contest, would do well to give us at the outset a 
careful definition of the term Emulation, as they 
intend to use it. This would perhaps save them- 
selves a great deal of toil, and their readers a 
great deal of perplexity. 

Now, it seems to me the truth of this question 
lies within a nutshell. 1. If emulation means a 
desire for improvement, progress, growth, — an ar- 
dent wish to rise above one's present condition 
or attainments, — or even an aspiration to attain 
to eminence in the school or in the world, it is 
a laudable motive. This is self -emulation. It 
presses the individual on to surpass himself. It 
compares his present condition with what he 
would be — with what he ought to be ; and, " for- 
getting those things which are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those which are before, he presses 
toward the mark for the prize." "An ardor 



158 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 
The bad sense.— Characteristics. 

kindled by the praiseworthy examples of others, 
inciting to imitate them, or to equal, or even 
excel them, without the desire of depressing 
them ",* is the sense in which the apostle uses 
the term [Romans, xi. 14] when he says: "If by 
any means I may provoke to emulation them 
which are my flesh, and might save some of 
them." If this be the meaning of emulation, it 
is every way a worthy principle to be appealed 
to in school. This principle exists to a greater or 
less extent in the mind of every child, and may 
very safely be strengthened by being called by 
the teacher into lively exercise ; provided always, 
that the eminence is sought from a desire to 
be useful, and not from a desire of self-glorifi- 
cation. 

2. But if emulation, on the other hand, means 
a desire of surpassing others, for the sake of sur- 
passing them; if it be a disposition that will 
cause an individual to be as well satisfied with 
the highest place, whether he has risen above his 
fellows by his intrinsic well-doing, or they have 
fallen below him by their neglect ; if it puts him 
in such a relation to others that their failures 
will be as gratifying to him as his own success; 
if it be a principle that prompts the secret wish 
in the child that others may miss their lessons, 
in order to give him an opportunity to gain ap- 
plause by a contrast with their abasement, — then, 
without doubt, it is an unworthy and unholy 

* Dr. Webster. 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 159 

Ambition.— The two views of emulaty*i compared. 

principle, and should never be encouraged or 
appealed to by the teacher. It has no similitude 
to that spirit which prompts a man to "love his 
neighbor as himself ". It has none of that gen- 
erosity which rejoices in the success of others. 
Carried out in after-life, it becomes ambition, such 
as fired the breast of a Napoleon, who sought a 
throne for himself, though he waded through the 
blood of millions to obtain it. 

It is to this principle that the apostle, before 
quoted, alludes, when he classes emulation with the 
"works of the flesh", which are these: "adultery, 
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, Emulation, wrath, 
strife, seditions, etc., — of the which things, I tell 
you before, as I have told you in times past, that 
they which do such things shall not inherit the 
kingdom of God." It is of this principle that the 
commentator, Scott, remarks : — " This thirst for 
human applause has caused more horrible viola- 
tions of the law of love, and done more to deso- 
late the earth, than even the grossest sensuality 
ever did." 

Thus, Emulation is a term which indicates a 
very good or a very bad thing, according to the 
definition we give it. In one view of it, the 
warmest aspirings to rise are consistent with a 
generous wish that others may rise also. It is 
even compatible with a heartfelt satisfaction in 
its possessor at the progress of others, though 
they should outstrip him in his upward course. 



160 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 
The teacher's duty.— Objections. 

. It is the spirit which actuates all true Christians, 
as they wend their way heavenward, rejoicing the 
more as they find the way is thronged with those 
who hope to gain an immortal crown. 

In the other view of it, we see men actuated 
by selfishness mingled with pride, inquiring, in 
the spirit of those mentioned in the Scripture, 
"Who among us shall be the greatest?" We 
every-where see men violating these sacred in- 
junctions of divine wisdom : " Let no man seek 
his own, but every man another's wealth." "Let 
nothing be done through strife or vain-glory ; but 
in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other bet- 
ter than themselves." — "In honor preferring one 
another." 

If such be the true picture of emulation, in 
both the good and the bad sense, certainly teach- 
ers can not hesitate a moment as to their duty. 
They may appeal to the principle first described, — 
cultivate and strengthen it ; and in so doing, they 
may be sure they are doing a good work. But 
unless they intend to violate the teachings of 
common sense, and the higher teachings of Chris- 
tianity, I know not how they can appeal to the 
principle of emulation as defined in the second 
case. 

But it may be urged that the teacher will find 
emulation, even in this latter sense, existing in 
human nature ; that he can not get rid of it if 
he will ; that it will be one of the most active 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 161 

Further objections.— Emulation riot essential to success. 

principles to which he can resort in arousing the 
the mind to exertion ; and, furthermore, that it 
has been appealed to by many of the most emi- 
nent teachers time out of mind. 

To this it is replied, that it is not disputed 
that children are selfish ; and that this selfishness 
may indeed be made a powerful instrumentality 
in urging them forward to the attainment of a 
temporary end. But does the existence of selfish- 
ness prove that it needs cultivation in the human 
character ? And will the end, when attained, jus- 
tify the means ? Is the end, whatever it may be, 
if attained at such a cost, a blessing to be de- 
sired? Will not the heart suifer more than the 
head will gain? 

It may be further urged, that the child will 
find the world full of this principle when he 
leaves the school ; and why, it is asked, should he 
at school be thrown into an unnatural position? 
I answer that evil is not to be overcome by mak- 
ing evil more prevalent, — and though there may 
be too much of self-seeking in the world, that is 
the very reason why the teacher should not en- 
courage its growth. The more true Christianity 
prevails in the world, the less there will be of 
that spirit which rejoices at another's halting ; 
hence I am convinced the teacher should do 
nothing to make that spirit more prevalent. 

Nor is it essential to the progress of the pupil 
even temporarily, since there are other and wor- 
thier principles which can be as successfully 



162 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 
The conclusion. — Prizes. 

called into action. If we look carefully at the 
expediency of thus stimulating the mind, we find 
that after the first trial of strength, many become 
disheartened and fall behind in despair. It will 
soon be obvious, in a class of twenty, who are 
the few that will be likely to surpass all others ; 
and therefore all the others, as a matter of course, 
fall back into envy, perhaps into hopeless indif- 
ference. Who has not seen this in a class in 
spelling, for instance, where the strife was for the 
"head" of the class, but where all but two or 
three were quite as well satisfied with being at 
the "foot? 1 ' It does not, then, accomplish the 
purpose for which it is employed ; and since those 
who are aroused by it, are even more injured 
than those who are indifferent, their undesirable 
qualities being thus strengthened, the opinion is 
entertained that those teachers are the most wise, 
who bend their ingenuity to find some other 
means to awaken the minds of the children 
under their charge. 

From what has been said, then, Emulation is 
to be recognised or repudiated among the incen- 
tives of the school-room, according to the signifi- 
cation we assign to the term. 

SECTION II.— PRIZES. 

It has for a long time been the custom of 
teachers to offer some prize as an incentive to 
exertion in school ; a prize of some pecuniary 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 163 

Honest investigation.— Experience.— Its result. 

value, a book, or a medal. In some places benefi- 
cent individuals have bestowed by legacy the 
means to purchase annually the prizes thus to be 
used. Every young teacher is called upon, there- 
fore, to inquire whether such an incentive is a 
proper one to be employed in the school-room. 
If there is any good to be expected from such 
incentive, will it counterbalance the evils that 
spring from the practice? Will the good of the 
whole school be promoted by such a measure, — 
and will this be a permanent or a temporary 
good? These are questions which press for an 
honest answer ; and the faithful teacher should 
not shrink from a careful investigation of the 
whole matter ; and if he finds good reason to 
differ from time -honored authority, he should 
abide by the truth rather than by prescriptive 
usage. 

In my own case, I may be allowed to say, my 
mind was early turned to this point ; though, I 
confess, with a strong bias in favor of the use of 
prizes. Pretty thoroughly for a series of years did 
I test their efficacy, but with a growing convic- 
tion that the prize, was not the proper instrumen- 
tality to create a healthy interest in the school. 
This conviction acquired additional strength by 
three or four years' trial of other incentives ; and 
it was full}'' confirmed afterward by a trial made 
for the purpose of testing again the efficiency of 
a prize, at an age when I could more carefully 
watch the workings of the human mind, and 



164 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 
Reasons assigned.— Prize becomes the leading motive. 

better appreciate the benefits or evils resulting 
from such a measure. I am now free to say that 
I am satisfied that prizes offered to a school in 
such a way that all may compete for them,, and 
only two or three obtain them, will always be 
productive of evil consequences, far overbalancing 
any temporary or partial good that may arise 
from them, and therefore they ought not to be 
used as incitements in our schools* 

Having expressed an opinion so decidedly upon 
a measure which claims among its friends and 
advocates some of the best minds in the country, 
I shall be expected to assign some reasons for 
the faith I entertain. From this I shall not 
shrink. I proceed therefore to express such ob- 
jections to the use of prizes, as have been sug- 
gested to my mind by my own experience, and 
confirmed by the experience and observation of 
others in whom I have great confidence. 

I. The offer of a prize gives undue prominence 
to a comparatively unworthy object. It practi- 
cally teaches the child to undervalue the higher 
reward of a good conscience, and a love of learn- 
ing for its own sake. The dazzling medal is 
placed in the foreground of his field of vision ; 
and it is very likely to eclipse those less showy 

* It may be well to remind the reader that I have used the term 
Prizes here in contradistinction from a system of Rewards, by which the 
teacher proposes to give some token of his regard to every one who does 
well,— and the more brilliant success of a few does not necessarily pre- 
clude others from participating in the favor according to their merit. 
Of such a system of Rewards I shall have something to say presently. 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 165 

Engenders rivalry.— The few only are stimulated. 

but more abiding rewards found in a sense of 
duty and a desire to be qualified for usefulness. 
In studying his lesson he thinks of the prize. He 
studies that he may merely recite well ; for it is 
a good recitation that wins the prize. He thinks 
not of duty, or of future usefulness ; the prize 
outshines all other objects. 

II. The pursuit of a prize engenders a spirit 
of rivalry among the pupils. Rivalry in pursuit 
of an object which only one can attain, and which 
all others must lose, must end in exultation on 
the part of the winner, and disappointment and 
envy on the part of the losers. It may be said, 
this ought not to be so ; but seldom can it be said, 
that it is not so. Such is human nature, and 
such it ever will be. Unpleasant feelings — some- 
times concealed, to be sure, but generally expressed 
in unequivocal terms — grow out of the award of 
almost every school prize, and sometimes con- 
tinue to exert their baleful influence through life. 
Now, as long as human nature brings forth un- 
lovely traits almost spontaneously, such direct 
efforts to cultivate them surely are not called for. 
It is the part of wisdom, then, to omit such cult- 
ure and avoid such results, especially when safer 
means are so accessible. 

III. The hope of gaining the prize stimulates 
only the feiv, while the many become indifferent. 
This is admitted to be true, even by the advo- 
cates of the prize system. Let a prize be offered 
in any class as a reward for the best scholarship, 



*W. s( 

a. 



166 EXCITING IlsTTEKEST IJST STUDY. 
Exceptions.— In spite of the system. 

and in a very few days it becomes perfectly ob- 
vious to all, who the two or three are that will be 
likely to outstrip all the others. These two or 
three will be stimulated to exertion ; but the 
strife is left entirely to them. All others, despair- 
ing of success, resolve at once to "let their mod- 
eration be known to all men"; and since the 
prize has been made so prominent an object, 
they can not be expected now to look at any 
thing above and beyond it. Feeling that they 
are not likely to participate in the honors of the 
class, they have but little disposition to share in 
its toils. 

This, to be sure, is not always so. There are 
some, who, ceasing to strive for the prize, toil for 
the more substantial blessing — a good education, — 
and in the end come out the best scholars. This 
is the way indeed most of our strong men are 
made ; for it has long been remarked that the 
prize scholars in our schools, and even in our 
colleges, do not usually become the most distin- 
guished men. On the other hand, many of them 
are never heard of after receiving their honors. 
But, though some of the slower scholars do thus 
hit upon the true path to eminence, it is not to 
be set down to the credit of the system ; they 
rise in spite of the system, rather than by virtue 
of it; while the ultimate failure of the prize 
scholars is usually directly attributable to the 
efect of the system ; for having been unduly 
stimulated to study solely with reference to red- 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 167 

Why prize scholars finally fail.— The. teacher should reach all. 

tation, and not with regard to future usefulness, 
their memories have been developed out of all 
proportion to the other faculties of their minds ; 
and, though they may have been very good re- 
citers, they have no power to become independent 
thinkers. Under different training, they might 
have become strong men. 

But to look no further than the school, the 
remark holds true in general, that prizes stimu- 
late the few, and the many become indifferent, 
not only to prizes, but to other and better mo- 
tives. That system of incentives only can be 
approved, which reaches and influences success- 
fully all the mind subjected to its operation. 

Nor is this an unimportant consideration. It 
is not sufficient praise for a teacher that he has 
a few good scholars in his school. Almost any 
teacher can call out the talent of the active 
scholars and make them brilliant reciters. The 
highest merit, however, lies in reaching all the 
pupils, the dull as well as the active, and in mak- 
ing the most of them, or rather in leading them 
to make the most of themselves. It should be 
remembered of every child, that the present is 
his only opportunity of being a child, and of re- 
ceiving the training appropriate to childhood ; 
and that teacher who rests satisfied with a sys- 
tem that does not reach the many, while he 
amuses himself and his visitors with the precoc- 
ity of a few of his most active scholars, is recre- 
ant to his responsible trust. 



168 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 

Difficulty in awarding the prize. — Judges disagree. — A fact. 

IV. There is much difficulty in awarding the 
prize so as to do strict justice to all. So many 
things are to be taken into the account in order 
to determine the excellence of a performance 
compared with others, that some particulars are 
very likely to be overlooked. Those who are 
called to judge of the results often disagree 
among themselves. The following anecdote will 
illustrate this : Three literary gentlemen were 
appointed to select the best from several compo- 
sitions, presented by a class who had written 
them in competition for a gold medal. Each of 
the gentlemen carefully read the whole number 
in private, and conscientiously selected the best 
according to his judgment. "When they came to- 
gether to compare results, it was found that each 
man had selected the best, but that no two had 
selected the same ! They carefully read and com- 
pared the three, and still each insisted that his 
original choice was the best. After much debate 
and considerable delay, one of the parties being 
obliged to go to his business, relieved himself 
from a painful detention, and his friends from a 
perplexing doubt, by saying he believed the com- 
position he had selected was the best; but as he 
could not stop to claim its rights, he would yield 
them in favor of the second best in the hands of 
one of his associates. This ended the dispute, 
and the action in favor of the successful one, was 
declared to be unanimous I 

This only proves how difficult it is to decide ; 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 169 



The parties dissatisfied.— Various external aids : exemplified. 

and in the case just cited, it might well be asked, 
why should one of these competitors be held up 
to the multitude to be applauded and admired, 
and the others sent back to their classes covered 
with the shame of a failure? What principle of 
justice sanctioned this decision ? 

Nor is this a solitary instance. It rarely hap- 
pens that the case is perfectly clear. There is 
usually much perplexity about it ; and hence one 
reason why the decision seldom satisfies the 
friends of the parties, either in the school or at 
home. But other considerations besides the in- 
trinsic merits of the performance, are to be taken 
into account in awarding a prize ; as, 

1. A difference in the external facilities which 
the competitors enjoy for getting the lessons. One 
pupil may be the son of poverty, and be com- 
pelled to labor during all the hours out of school ; 
another may be in easy circumstances and have 
nothing to prevent giving undivided attention to 
study during the whole day. One may be the 
child of parents who have no power to render 
assistance by way of explaining a difficult point; 
while the other may have all his doubts removed 
at once by parental aid. One may never even be 
encouraged by a kind word at home ; another is 
constantly urged to effort, and perhaps not allowed 
to be idle. One may have access to no books but 
his school-manuals ; the other may have at his 
command a large library. This difference in cir- 
cumstances should be taken into the account ; 



170 EXCITING INTEKEST IN STUDY. 
Improper means used.— An "authoress!" 

but it never can be fully understood by those who 
are called to decide. 

2. The improper means ivhich may have been 
employed to secure the prize. Ambition, when 
aroused, is not always scrupulous of its means. 
One competitor may be high-minded ; may enter 
the arena determined to succeed by an honorable 
strife ; may resolve to succeed by his own exer- 
tions, or to fail rather than bring in any thing 
which is not the fruit of his own study. Another, 
regardless of honor or principle, resolves only to 
succeed, whatever it may cost ; hesitates not to 
copy from others if possible, or to apply to a 
brother in college or some friend in the High 
School to furnish the difficult solution, prepared 
to order. One young lady spends days and nights 
in arranging the glowing thoughts for her com- 
position, determined, M industry, study, good taste, 
and a careful application of the rules of rhetoric 
can effect any thing, that her production shall be 
worthy of a prize. Another, in no way distin- 
guished for scholarship, industry, or honor, writes 
a careless letter to a married sister in a distant 
city, invoking her aid. In due time the mail 
brings an elegant essay. It is copied with suffi- 
cient accuracy to be read, and at the examination 
takes the prize ! The fair " authoress " stands 
forth and is nattered before the multitude, — is 
perhaps made to believe that she is worthy of 
praise ; she grasps the golden bauble, and, covered 
with the blushes of modesty, receives the con- 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 171 

Abuses.— System unsafe. 



gratulations and caresses of friends, and is after- 
ward reputed a good scholar. Her competitors 
meantime become convinced that effort can not 
rival genius; they are mortified to think they 
have presumed to enter the arena with native 
talent, and become disheartened as to any future 
attempt. 

Now, where is the justice in all this proceed- 
ing ? Yet this is not fiction ; it is history ! If 
such abuses — abuses that might well make an 
angel weep, revealing, as they do, that woman's 
heart can be thus sold to deception — are the ac- 
companiments of a prize system, may we not well 
doubt the utility of that system? 

Yet who can know either the different facili- 
ties enjoyed by the competitors, or the want of 
principle in some of them? Who can enter the 
secret chambers of the mind or the heart, and 
estimate with any accuracy the just amount of 
merit in any action ? This is God's prerogative ; 
while " man looketh only on the outward appear- 
ance ". My inference then is : A system can 
hardly be safe which is so uncertain. 

V. The prize rewards success, not effort ; 
talent, not worth. Every one knows that in 
estimating the value and virtue of an action, the 
motive which prompted it, and the effort it neces- 
sarily cost, should be taken into the account. 
Every one knows, too, that success in study is by 
no means a criterion by which to judge of the 
merits of the scholar. Some learn their lessons 



172 EXCITING INTEKEST IN STUDY. 
Success overrated..— But God rewards.— How ? 

with great facility and with but little effort ; 
others study long and patiently without any brill- 
iant results. One competitor for a prize may 
bring results which have cost him midnight toil 
and the most unremitting perseverance ; another 
with brighter parts, and with but little labor, is 
able to surpass him, and takes the medal. Now, 
the former deserves in a far higher degree the 
encouragement of the reward ; yet it is given to 
him who has the talent, but who lacks the indus- 
try. The rule of Scripture which announces that 
"to whom much is given, of him shall much be 
required", is violated, and he is rewarded for 
producing but little more than the one to whom 
little is given. 

It is often urged by those who advocate a sys- 
tem of prizes and rewards, that God rewards; 
and therefore it is at least justifiable that we 
should imitate his example. I admit that God, 
in his government, does reward ; but he rewards 
effort rather than success; he "looketh upon the 
heart " as man can not do, and rewards worth, not 
talent. We might, indeed, imitate his example, 
if we had less frailty, and were not so liable to 
be imposed upon by the outward appearance. 
God indeed rewards men; but he estimates the 
secret intention, seeing the inward springs of 
thought before they find expression in words or 
actions. He regards the motive, and holds out 
for the encouragement of the humblest child of 
earth, who does the best he can, as rich a crown 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 173 



Studying for a prize only.— Argument perverted. 



of glory, as he does for those whose outward cir- 
cumstances, in the eyes of mortals, are more aus- 
picious. When man can as wisely and as right- 
eously bestow his prizes and rewards, there will 
be far less objection to their use. 

VI. The pupil who studies for a prize as his 
chief motive, will seldom continue to study tuhen 
the prize is withdrawn. This is so obvious as 
scarcely to need illustration. If it be necessary 
to add any thing to the mere statement of the 
fact, an appeal to almost universal experience 
would confirm it. A teacher who has depended 
upon prizes in a school, finds it very difficult to 
awaken an interest there, when he withdraws the 
prize. Hence many have, on trying the experi- 
ment of abandoning the prize system, become 
discouraged, and have returned again to the use 
of prizes, believing them essential to their suc- 
cess. Thus the very argument which shows most 
clearly their pernicious tendency,' is made a reason 
for continuing them. As before hinted, the prize 
scholars in our academies, and even our colleges, 
are seldom distinguished men in after-life, — a fact 
that speaks conclusively on this point. But it 
can scarcely be necessary to spend words to prove 
a truth almost self-evident. 

VII. By the prize system, the influence of the 
good example of some of the best pupils, is lost 
upon the school. All who have taught, know how 
important this influence is to the success of the 
school. It tells with resistless power upon the 



174 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 

"He is studying for the prize."— Rewards, not necessary. 

other scholars, wherever it exists, unless some 
unworthy motive can be assigned for it. But 
under the prize system, let a teacher appeal to 
the example of his best scholars, and the reply 
is, "O, yes, he behaves well, or he studies dili-, 
gently, but he is trying to get the prize." With 
this understanding, his example becomes power- 
less, unless, indeed, there may be a disposition to 
be unlike him in every thing. It is believed this 
is a consideration of considerable importance. 

I have thus assigned, at some length, the 
reasons why I should discountenance, among the 
incentives of the school, the use of Prizes. As to 
the use of "Rewards", when they are made so 
numerous that every one who is really deserving 
may receive one, — and when the basis of their 
distribution is not talent, not success merely, but 
good intention and praiseworthy effort, — I have 
much less to say. As expressions of the teacher's 
interest in the children, and of his approval of 
their well-doing, they may serve a good end. 
Perhaps there is no very strong objection to 
them in principle ; though if the teacher subjects 
himself to the necessary outlay in the purchase 
of them, it may become burdensome to him. I 
may add, however, that I do not think rewards 
are necessary to the teacher's success. I should 
prefer to do without them. It is possible to pro- 
duce such a feeling in the school-room, that the 
approving conscience of the child, and the com- 
mendatory smile of the teacher, shall be the 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 175 
Prizes interfere with, study.— Love of approbation. 

richest of all rewards. These come without money 
and without price, and may always be freely and 
safely bestowed, wherever there is a good inten- 
tion exhibited by the child. That is the most 
healthy state of things where these are most 
prized. As children whose parents begin early to 
hire them to do their duty, are seldom ready 
afterward to render their cheerful service as an 
act of filial obligation, whenever the pay is with- 
held, — so children at school, who have been accus- 
tomed to expect a reward, seldom pursue their 
studies as cheerfully when that expectation is 
cut off. 

SECTION III.— PROPER INCENTIVES. 

In what has already been said, it has been 
more than hinted that there are higher attributes 
than emulation, which the teacher should ad- 
dress, and which, if he is successful in calling 
them into exercise, will be quite sufficient to in- 
sure the proper application of his pupils to their 
studies. They have the merit, moreover, of being 
safe. They do not unduly stimulate the intel- 
lectual, at the expense of the moral faculties. 
Their very exercise constitutes a healthy growth 
of the moral nature. Some of these I may briefly 
allude to. 

I. A DESIRE TO GAIN THE APPROBATION OF THEIR 

parents and teacher. The love of approbation 
is as universal in the human mind as emulation. 
Not one in a thousand can be found who does 



176 EXCITING INTEREST I JST STUDY. 
A desirable trait.— " Twice blest."— Desire to advance. 

not possess it. Within proper limits, it is a de- 
sirable trait in human character. It is, to be 
sure, one of the selfish propensities ; but among 
them all, it is the most innocent. Carried to an 
extreme, it would lead its possessor to crave the 
good opinion of the bad as well as of the good, 
and to become an obsequious seeker after popu- 
larity. This, of course, is to be deprecated. But 
there can be no danger of this extreme, as long 
as the approbation of parents and teachers is the 
object aimed at. It implies in the child a respect 
for the opinions and a confidence in the justice 
of his parents and teachers ; and hence it implies 
in him a generous desire to please, as a condition 
of being commended by them. 

In this sense, the love of approbation may be 
appealed to by the teacher. He perhaps need not 
frequently use the language of praise. It will 
generally be sufficient, if the smile of approval 
beams forth in his countenance. If he is judi- 
cious as well as just, this boon soon becomes a 
precious one to the child. It is a reward, more- 
over, which 

" is twice blest ; 
It blessetb him who gives and him who takes." 

II. A desire op advancement. This is emula- 
tion in its good sense. It leads the child, as before 
remarked, to compare his present standing and 
attainments with what they should be, and to 
desire to surpass himself. This is ever commend- 
able. Man was made for progress ; and it is no 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 177 
Desire to be useful.— Desire to do right. 

unworthy aspiration, when this desire fires the 
youthful breast. The teacher, then, may appeal 
to this desire, may kindle it into a flame even, 
with safety, — because it is a flame that warms 
without consuming that on which it feeds. 

III. A desire to be useful. The good teacher 
should never fail to impress upon the child that 
the object of his being placed on earth, was that 
he might be of some use to the world by which 
he is surrounded. "No man liveth to himself, 
and no man dieth to himself." He can be thus 
useful by storing the mind with knowledge and 
the heart with right affections. He may be re- 
minded of the connection between his present 
studies and the pursuits of life to which they 
may be applied. Some judicious hint at the 
future application of any branch is always a 
good preparation of the mind to pursue it. If 
there is a definite object in view, there will always 
be more alacrity in the labor of study; and this 
may be made to influence the young pupil as well 
as the more advanced. It is no small thing for 
the child if he can be early made to feel that he 
is living to some purpose. 

IV. A desire to do right. This, in other 
words, is a disposition to obey conscience by con- 
forming to the will of God. This indeed is the 
highest and holiest of all the motives to human 
action. In its fullest sense it constitutes the 
fundamental principle of a religious character. 
The teacher should most assiduously cultivate in 



178 EXCITING- INTEREST IN STUDY. 

Conscience active in childhood. 

the child a regard for this principle. God has 
implanted the conscience in every child of earth, 
that it should early be made use of to regulate 
the conduct. That teacher is either grossly igno- 
rant or madly perverse, who disregards the con- 
science, while he appeals alone to the selfishness 
of the young, and thus practically teaches that 
moral obligation is a nullity ; that the law of God 
— so beautifully expounded by the Saviour — 
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind," and " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself" — is of little consequence; and that the 
injunction of the apostle — "Whether ye eat or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
God," is as good as obsolete. 

In early childhood, the conscience is most act- 
ive. It needs, to be sure, at that period, to be 
enlightened ; but if the teachings of Revelation 
are made plain to the child, he seldom disregards 
them. The teacher has at this period very much 
to do, as I have before said in the chapter on 
Responsibility of Teachers ; and he can not neg- 
lect his duty without the most aggravated culpa- 
bility. The point I urge here, is, that he should 
use these motives as incentives to study. The 
child can be made to feel that he owes the most 
diligent efforts for improvement to his teacher, 
who daily labors for his improvement; to his 
parents, who have kindly supplied his wants, and 
have provided the means for his cultivation ; to 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 179 

Sense of obligation. 

society, whose privileges he may enjoy, and to 
which he is bound to make a return by becoming 
an intelligent and useful member of it ; to him- 
self, as a rational and immortal being, capable of 
unbounded enjoyment or untold misery, just in 
proportion as he prepares himself for either ; and, 
above all, to his Creator, by whose bounty he 
lives, surrounded with friends and blessed with 
opportunities, which are denied to millions of his 
fellow-beings, — by whose gracious providence he 
has been endowed with faculties and capabilities 
making him but little lower than the angels, and 
which he is bound to cultivate for usefulness and 
for heaven, — by whose mercy he has been sup- 
plied, as millions have not, with the word of God, 
to guide his mind to things above, and with the 
influences of Christian society, to cheer him in 
his path to heaven ; — above all, I repeat, should 
the child be taught to feel that he owes to God 
his best efforts to make the most of all his powers 
for time and eternity. If this can be done (and 
I believe to a great extent it can be done), there 
will be no need of a resort to those questionable 
incentives found in exciting children to outstrip 
their fellows by prizes and rewards ; while in this 
very process, the foundation of a good moral 
training will be laid, without which the perfect 
structure of a noble character can never be reared 
in later life. 

To the motives already alluded to, if it be nec- 
essary to add another, I would urge, 



180 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 

The pleasure of acquisition.— Acquirements of three years. 

V. The pleasure of acquisition. This is often 
underrated by teachers. Our Creator has not 
more universally bestowed a natural appetite for 
the food which is necessary for the growth of 
the body, than he has a mental longing for the 
food of the mind ; and as he has superadded a 
sensation of pleasure to the necessary act of eat- 
ing, so he has made it a law of the mind, to ex- 
perience its highest delight while in the act of 
receiving the mental aliment. Whoever has ob- 
served childhood with an attentive eye, must 
have been impressed with the wisdom of God in 
this arrangement. How much the child acquires 
within the first three years after its birth ! He 
learns a difficult language with more precision 
than a well-educated adult foreigner could learn 
it in the same time ; yet language is not his only 
or his chief study. During these same three 
years, he makes surprising advances in general 
knowledge. He seeks an intimate acquaintance 
with all the physical objects by which he is sur- 
rounded. The size, form, color, weight, tempera- 
ture, and use of each are investigated by the test 
of his own senses, or ascertained by innumerable 
inquiries. His ideas of height and distance, of 
light and heat, of motion and velocity, of cause 
and effect, are all well defined. He has made no 
mean attainments in morals. He comprehends 
the law of right and wrong, so that his decisions 
may well put to the blush his superiors in age ; 
and, unless grossly neglected, he has learned the 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 181 

Mr. Mann quoted.— Thq blind and the dumb. 

duty of obedience to parents and reverence toward 
God. Now, all this amazing progress has been 
made, because of the irrepressible curiosity with 
which God has endowed him, and the unspeaka- 
ble delight he experiences in acquiring the knowl- 
edge which gratifies it. 

All must have noticed the delight with which 
the child grasps a new idea ; but few have been 
able so eloquently to describe it, as it is done by 
Mr. Mann. "Mark a child," says he, "when a 
clear, well-defined, vivid conception seizes it. The 
whole nervous tissue vibrates. Every muscle 
leaps. Every joint plays. The face becomes au- 
roral. The spirit flashes through the body like 
lightning through a cloud." 

"Observe, too, the blind, the deaf, and the 
dumb. So strong is their inborn desire for knowl- 
edge, — such are the amazing attractive forces of 
their minds for it, that although the natural in- 
lets, the eye and the ear, are closed, yet they will 
draw it inward, through the solid walls and en- 
casements of the body. If the eye be curtained 
with darkness, it will enter through the ear. If 
the ear be closed in silence, it will ascend along 
the nerves of touch. Every new idea that enters 
into the presence of the sovereign mind, carries 
offerings of delight with it, to make its coming 
welcome. Indeed, our Maker created us in blank 
ignorance, for the very purpose of giving us the 
boundless, endless pleasure of learning new 
things." 



182 EXCITING INTEREST IJST STUDY. 

The pleasure abates in aftej life.— Mind may be surfeited. 

It is, of course, not to be expected that the 
same degree of pleasure will attend the learner 
in every acquisition, as the novelty diminishes 
and as he advances in age. The bodily appetite 
is less keen in after life than in childhood, so 
that the adult may never realize again to the 
full extent, the delicious flavors which regaled 
him in his earliest years. Still there will ever be 
a delight in acquisition. And to carry our illus- 
tration a little further, — as the child is soonest 
cloyed whose stomach is surfeited with dainties 
and stimulated with condiments and pampered 
with sweetmeats, till his taste has lost its acu- 
men, and digestion becomes a burden — so the 
mental appetite is soonest destroyed, when, under 
the unskillful teacher, it is overloaded with what 
it can neither digest nor disgorge. The mind 
may be surfeited ; and then no wonder if it loathes 
even the wholesome aliment. Artificial stimu- 
lants, in the shape of prizes, and honors, and 
flattery, and fear, and shame, may have impaired 
its functions, so that it ceases to act except under 
their excitement. But all must see that these 
are unnatural conditions, superinduced by erro- 
neous treatment. There is still a delight in 
acquisition, just as soon as the faculties are 
aroused to the effort ; and the skillful teacher 
will strive to wake up the mind to find this de- 
light, — and if he understands his work, he will 
scarcely need a stronger incentive. If he under- 
stands the secret of giving just so much instruc- 



EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 183 

A desire to know. — Instance of God's wisdom and goodness. 

tion as to excite the learner's curiosity, and then 
to leave him to discover and acquire for himself, 
he will have no necessity to use any other means 
as stimulants to exertion. 

To this might be added that irrepressible 
curiosity, that all-pervading desire to know, which 
is found in the mind of every child. The mind, 
as if conscious of its high destiny, instinctively 
spreads its unfledged wings in pursuit of knowl- 
edge. This, with some children, is an all-suffi- 
cient stimulant to the most vigorous exertion. 
To this the teacher may safely appeal. Indeed, 
it is a convincing proof of the wisdom as well as 
the goodness of God, that this desire to know, as 
well as the delight of acquisition, are the most 
active at that early period of childhood, when a 
just appreciation of the utility of knowledge, and 
the higher motives already detailed, could scarcely 
find a lodgment in the tender mind. It seems 
to be, therefore, an indisputable ' dictate of our 
very nature, that both these principles should be 
early employed as incentives. 

If, then, the desire of the approval of parents 
and teachers, — the desire of advancement, — the 
desire to be useful, — and the desire to do right, can 
be superadded to the natural love in the child for 
acquisition, and a natural desire to knoiv, there 
will, as I believe, be but little occasion to look 
further for incentives to exertion in the pupil ; 
and I may venture to add, as a scholium to what 
has already been said, that the teacher who was 



184 EXCITING INTEREST IN STUDY. 

Wise instruction "will aim at making learning pleasurable. 

not yet learned to call into exercise these higher 
motives, and to rely for success mainly upon 
them, and who dares not abandon the system of 
exciting stimulants, for fear of a failure, has yet 
much to learn as a true educator of the young. 
Wise instruction will certainly aim at making 
the process of learning pleasurable ; but it is easy 
to apply this test too rigorously. When pupils 
manifest a distaste for any kind of learning, it is 
usual to assume either that the instruction is 
unskillful, or that the knowledge presented is not 
adapted to the pupil's present needs ; but there 
is often a deeper and more significant indication. 
The pupil may have a predisposition to certain 
modes of mental activity, and the exercise of 
these will always be pleasurable ; but there may 
be other modes of mental activity that have not 
yet been established, and the exercise of these 
will at first be painful. As one dominant aim 
of education should be symmetry, these dormant 
modes of activity should be stimulated, and though 
this stimulation may be unpleasant, it should be 
kept up till habit has made the exercise agree- 
able. Under the same conditions of age, sex, and 
quality of instruction, some pupils will find a de- 
light in mathematical study, while to others it is 
a repulsive drudgery, the difference being due to 
the cause just assigned. That a certain study is 
agreeable, is no reason in itself why it should be 
pursued ; nor is the fact that another study is 
disagreeable, a reason in itself why it should not 



EXCITING INTEKEST IN STUDY. 185 

The best teachers sometimes miss their ideal. 

be pursued. But in all cases the aim of the 
teacher should doubtless be to make study pleasur- 
able, to inspire what Mr. Bain has happily called 
"intrinsic charm"; but the best of teachers will 
sometimes fall short of this ideal through no 
fault of their own. 



CHAPTER X. 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

IT is not necessary that any space in this work 
should be occupied in speaking of the im- 
portance of order in our schools. Every body who 
has written or spoken on this subject, has con- 
ceded the necessity of obedience on the part of 
the pupil. "Order is heaven's first law"; and 
it is scarcely more essential to the harmony of 
heaven, than it is to the happiness and success 
of the school. 

If such be the necessity of order in the school, 
then the ability to secure and maintain it, is no 
mean part of the qualification of the good teacher. 
It is lamentable that so many fail in this partic- 
ular ; and yet this frequent failure can in most 
cases be traced to some defect in the constitu- 
tional temperament, or some deficiency in the 
mental or moral culture of the teacher himself. 
It shall be my first object, then, to point out 
some of the 

SECTION I.— REQUISITES IN THE TEACHER FOR GOOD 
GOVERNMENT. 

I. Self-government. It has frequently been 
said that no man can govern others till he has 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 187 

Angry passions.— Manner.— Levity and moroseness. 

learned to govern himself. I have no doubt of 
the truth of this. If an individual is not perfectly 
self-possessed, his decisions must fail to command 
respect. The self-government of the teacher 
should be complete, in the following particulars: 

1. As to the passion of anger. The exhibition 
of anger always detracts from the weight of 
authority. A man under its influence is not 
capable of doing strict justice to his pupils. Before 
entering upon teaching, therefore, a man should 
somehow obtain the mastery over his temper, so 
that under any provocation he can control it. 
He should consider that in school his patience 
will often be severely tried. He should not expect, 
indeed, that the current of affairs in school will 
for a single day run perfectly smooth. He should, 
therefore, prepare for the worst, and firmly resolve 
that whatever unpleasant thing shall occur, it 
shall not take him entirely by surprise. Such 
forethought will give him self-command. If, how- 
ever, from his past experience, and from the 
nature of his temperament, he is satisfied he can 
not exercise this self-control, he may be assured 
he is the wrong man to engage in teaching. A 
man who has not acquired thorough ascendency 
over his own passions, is an unsafe man to be 
intrusted with the government of children. 

2. As to levity and moroseness of manner. 
Either extreme is to be avoided. There are some 
teachers who exhibit such a frivolity in all their 
intercourse with their pupils, that they can never 



188 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Ridiculous assumption of smartness.— Mr. Abbot's case. 

command them with authority, or gain their 
cordial respect. This is a grievous fault ; and 
the teacher should at once find an antidote for 
it, by serious reflection upon the responsibility of 
his position. If this will not cure it, nothing else 
can. 

There are others who are characterized by a 
perpetual peevishness, so that a pleasant word 
from them is indeed a strange thing. They can 
never expect to gain the affection of their pu- 
pils ; and without securing the love of children, 
the government of them will never be of the 
right kind. This habit of snappishness should be 
broken up at once. 

There are some very young teachers, who 
sometimes assume one or the other of these pe- 
culiar modes of address, or perhaps both, to be 
used alternately, — fancying that they will gain 
popularity by the one, or give themselves greater 
authority by the other. This is a very mistaken 
notion ; for children have more discernment than 
most men give them credit for, and they usually 
see directly through such a flimsy disguise, — and 
the teacher becomes ridiculous rather than great 
in their estimation, whenever he takes any such 
false position. 

Mr. Abbot, in his "Teacher," states a fact 
which well, illustrates this point. " Many years 
ago," says he, "when I was a child, the teacher 
of the school where my early studies were per- 
formed, closed his connection with the establish- 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 189 

"Take off your hats."— Treatment of peculiar pupils. 

merit ; and, after a short vacation, another was 
expected. On the appointed day the boys began 
to collect, some from curiosity, at an early hour, 
and many speculations were started as to the 
character of the new instructor. We were stand- 
ing near a table with our hats on, — and our posi- 
tion and the exact appearance of the group is 
indelibly fixed on my memory, — when a small 
and youthful-looking man entered the room and 
walked up toward us. Supposing him to be some 
stranger, or, rather, not making any supposition 
at all, we stood looking at him as he approached, 
and were thunderstruck at hearing him accost us 
with a stern voice and sterner brow : — ' Take off 
your hats ! Take off your hats, and go to your 
seats.' The conviction immediately rushed upon 
our minds that this must be the new teacher. The 
first emotion was that of surprise, and the second 
was that of the ludicrous ; though I believe we 
contrived to smother the laugh until we got out 
into the open air." 

The true rule is to act the part which is agree- 
able to nature. The teacher having gained the 
self-command just insisted upon, and having in 
him the spirit of kindness and a desire to be 
useful, should assume nothing unnatural for ef- 
fect. His manner should be truly dignified, but 
courteous. 

3. As to his treatment of those pupils that are 
marked by some peculiarity. There will usually 
be some pupils who are very backward, and per- 



190 SCHOOL GOfEENMENT. 

Injustice.— Self-reliance. 

haps very dull, — or who may have some physical 
defect, or some mental eccentricity. The teacher 
should be able to govern himself in all his remarks 
concerning such pupils. He should avoid all allu- 
sion to such singularities before the school ; and 
it is the height of injustice — I was about to say, 
of malevolence — for him ever to use those low 
and degrading epithets so often found upon the 
teacher's tongue, — such as dunce, thickskull, and 
the like. Is it not misfortune enough for a child 
to be backward or dull, without having the pain 
and mortification increased by the cruelty of an 
unfeeling teacher? The teacher should take a 
special interest in such children ; he should en- 
deavor to enter into the feelings of their parents, 
and to treat them in such a way as to encourage 
rather than crush them. 

II. A CONFIDENCE IN" HIS ABILITY TO GOVERN. 

We can generally do what we firmly believe we 
can do.* At any rate, a man is more likely to 
succeed in any enterprise, when he has the feel- 
ing of self-reliance. The teacher, by reflection 
upon the importance of good government to his 
success, and by a careful study of the means to 
be employed and the motives to be presented, 
should be able to bring himself to the determina- 
tion to have good order in his school, and so 
fully to believe he can have it, that his pupils 
shall detect no misgivings in him on this point. 
Whenever they discover that he has doubts of 

* Po8sunt quia posse videntur. — Vikgil. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 191 

"Views of government.— Not tyranny. 

his success in governing, they will be far more 
ready to put his skill to the test. It would be 
better that a young teacher should decline to 
take a difficult school, rather than enter it with- 
out the full belief of his ability to succeed. I 
would not wish to be understood by these re- 
marks to be encouraging an unreasonable and 
blind presumption. A confidence in one's ability 
should be founded upon a reasonable estimate of 
his powers, compared with the difficulties to be 
overcome. What I recommend is, that the teacher 
should carefully weigh the difficulties, and can- 
didly judge of his own resources, and then un- 
dertake nothing which he thinks is beyond 
his ability. If, after this, he believes he can suc- 
ceed, other things being equal, success is almost 
certain. 

III. Just views of government. 1. It is not 
tyranny, exercised to please the one who governs, 
or to promote his own convenience.' The despot 
commands for the sake of being obeyed. But 
government in its proper sense, is an arrange- 
ment for the general good, — for the benefit of the 
governed as well as of the ruler. That is not 
good government which seeks any other object. 
The teacher should so view the matter ; and in 
establishing any regulations in school, he should 
always inquire whether they are suggested by a 
selfish regard to his own ease, or whether they 
spring from a sincere and disinterested wish to 
promote the improvement of the school. 



192 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Uniformity.— Equality.— No aristocracy in school. 

2. He should see the necessity of making the 
government uniform ; that is, the same from day 
to day. If he punishes to-day what he tolerates 
to-morrow, he cannot expect the cordial respect 
of his pupils. Some teachers, not having learned 
the art of self-government, take counsel too much 
of their own feelings. To-day they are in good 
health and spirits, and their faces are clothed in 
sunshine; they can smile at any thing. To- 
morrow, suffering under bad digestion, or the 
want of exercise, or the want of sleep, the thun- 
der-storm hovers about their brow, ready to burst 
upon the first offender. Woe to the luckless wight 
who does not seasonably discover this change in 
the condition of the weather. A teacher can not 
long respect himself who is thus capricious ; he 
may also be sure that his school will not long 
respect him. 

3. He should so view government as to make 
it equal; that is, equal in its application to the 
whole school, — the large as well as small scholars, 
the males as well as females. This is often a 
great fault with teachers. They raise up a sort 
of aristocracy in their schools, a privileged class, 
a miniature nobility. They will insist that the 
little boys and girls shall abstain from certain 
practices, — whispering, for instance, — and most^ 
promptly punish the offenders, while they toler- 
ate the same thing among the larger pupils. 
This is cowardly in itself, and as impolitic as it 
is cowardly. The teacher makes a great mistake, 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 193 

No partiality. — Views of the governed. — Reason. 

who begins his government with the small chil- 
dren, in the hope of frightening the larger ones 
into obedience. He should have the manliness 
and the justice to begin with the larger pupils ; 
the smaller ones never resist, when authority is 
established with those above them. Besides this, 
the very class who are thus indulged, are the 
very ones who soonest despise, and justly too, 
the authority of the teacher. 

He should make his government impartial in 
every respect. He should have no favorites — no 
preferences, based upon the outward circum- 
stances of the child, his family, or his personal 
attractions and the like. The rich and the poor 
should be alike to the teacher. He should remem- 
ber that each child has a soul ; and it is with 
the soul, and not with the wealth of this world, 
that he has to do. He should remember that a, 
gem, as bright as a sunbeam, is often concealed 
under a rough exterior. It should be his work, 
nay his delight — to bring out this gem from its 
hiding-place, and apply to it the polish of a 
"workman that needeth not to be ashamed." 

IV. Just views of the Governed. Notwith- 
standing the imperfection of human nature, as 
developed in the young, they have some redeem- 
ing qualities. They are intelligent and reason- 
able beings. They have more or less love of 
approbation ; they have affection, and, above all, 
they have a moral sense. All these qualities are 
considerably developed before they enter the 



194 SCgOOL GOVERNMENT, 



!H 



Affection. — Conscience. — Decision.— Firmness. 



school. The teacher should remember this, and 
prepare himself to address, as far as may be, all 
these. Love of approbation, as we have before 
seen, is not an unworthy motive to be addressed, 
and it is well known that many children are 
very easily controlled by it. It is not the highest 
motive, to be sure, nor is it the lowest. The 
affection for a teacher, which many children 
will exercise, is one of the most powerful instru- 
mentalities in governing them with ease. The 
conscience, early trained, is all-powerful. I allude 
to these principles of action once more, in order 
to say that the peculiar character of each should 
be well studied by the teacher. He should 
understand the human mind so well, as to be 
able to find the avenues to these better parts of 
the child's nature, remembering that whenever 
several ways of doing the same thing, are pre- 
sented, it is always wise to choose the best. 

V. Decisjon and Firmness. By decision, I 
mean a readiness to determine and to act in any 
event, just as duty seems to dictate ; a willing- 
ness to take the responsibility just as soon as 
the way is plain. By firmness is meant that 
fixedness of purpose which resolutely carries out 
a righteous decision. Both of these qualities are 
essential to good government in the teacher. 
Much time is often lost by a teacher's vacillating 
when action is more important. Besides, if the 
pupils discover that the teacher hesitates, and 
dreads to take any responsibility, they very soon 



school government! 105 

The unjust judge.— A practical example. 

lose their respect for him. I would not urge 
that a teacher should act hastily. He never 
should decide till he is confident he decides 
right : any delay is better than hasty error. But 
his delay, in all matters of government should 
have reference to a true knowledge of his duty ; 
when that is clearly known, he should be decided. 
Many teachers suffer in their government, for 
want of firmness. They act upon the principle 
of personal convenience, as did the unjust judge 
mentioned in the parable. "And he would not 
for a while : but afterward he said within him- 
self, Though I fear not God nor regard man ; 
yet because this widow troubleth me, I will 
avenge her, Jest by her continual coining she 
weary me." How often we hear something like 
this in the school-room. " May I go and drink " ? 
— says James, in a peculiarly imploring tone. 
"No," says the teacher, promptly, and evidently 
without any reflection as to the decision he has 
made. James very composedly sits down, eyeing 
the countenance of the teacher expressively, as 
much as to say, "Til try you again soon." 
Before long he observes the teacher quite busy 
with a class, and he again pops the question : 
"May I go and drink"? Stung at the moment 
with impatience at the interruption, the teacher 
answers instantly and emphatically, "No, no, 
James, sit down." James still watches his teach- 
er's expression, and cannot discover there any 
signs of a mind seeking the path of duty, and 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



Philosophizing.— Conclusion.— A better way. 



he silently thinks to himself, "The third time 
never fails." So, after a minute or two, when 
the teacher is somewhat puzzled with a knotty 
question, and is on the point of nibbling a pen 
besides, — "May I go and drink, sir?" again 
rings upon the teacher's ear. " Yes, yes, yes ! do 
go along ; I suppose you'll keep asking till you 
get it." 

Now James goes to drink, and then returns 
to philosophize upon this matter, perhaps as fol- 
lows : — " I don't believe he stopped to think 
whether I needed drink or not ; therefore, here- 
after I shall never believe he really means no, 
when he says it. He acts without thought. I 
have also found that if I will but ask several 
times, I shall get it. So I shall know how to 
proceed next time." — I do not know that any 
child would express this thought in so many 
words ; but the impression upon his mind is 
none the less distinct. 

Now the teacher should carefully consider the 
question addressed to him. How long since this 
child had water ? Can it be necessary for him 
to drink so often ? Then let the answer be given 
mildly, but decidedly — "No, James." The very 
manner, quite likely, will settle the question, so 
that James will not ask again. The answer once 
given should be firmly adhered to. It would 
even be better that James should suffer for the 
want of water, than for the want of confidence in 
his teacher's firmness. In this way the teacher 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 197 

Moral and religious principle.— First impressions. 

would establish his word with the school in a 
very few days ; and his pupils would soon learn 
that with him "no means no," and "yes means 
yes" — a matter of no small importance to the 
teacher of a school. 

VI.' Deep Moral Principle. The teacher 
should ever be a conscientious man ; and in 
nothing is this more necessary than in the exer- 
cise of good government. In this matter the 
teacher can never respeGt himself when he acts 
from caprice or selfishness. His inquiry should 
be, What is right ? What is justice — justice to 
my pupils — to myself? And if he could add to 
moral obligation the" high sanctions of religious 
principle, and could habitually and sincerely turn 
his thoughts to his Maker, with the heartfelt 
inquiry — What wilt thou have me to do ? — then 
he would seldom err in the discharge of this 
trust. His pupils, seeing that he acted from 
fixed and deep principle, would respect his hon- 
esty, even if he should cress their desires. 

Having now dwelt at some length upon the 
requisites in the teacher for good government, I 
shall next proceed to present some of the 

section ii.— means of securing good order. 

1. Be careful as to the first impression you 
make. It is an old proverb, that "what is well 
begun is half done." This holds true in school- 
keeping, and particularly in school government. 



198 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Respect precedes attachment.— The rough and the gentle "way. 

The young study character very speedily and 
very accurately. Perhaps no one pupil could 
express in words an exact estimate of a teacher's 
character after a week's acquaintance ; but yet 
the whole school has received an impression 
which is not far from the truth. A teacher, 
then, is very unwise who attempts to assume to 
be any thing which he is not. He should ever 
be frank ; and in commencing a school he should 
begin as he can hold out. Any assumption of 
an authoritative tone is especially ill-judged. 
The pupils at once put themselves in an attitude 
of resistance, when this is perceived by them. 

A teacher should ever remember that among 
children — however it may be among adults — 
respect always precedes attachment. If he would 
gain the love of the children, he must first be 
worthy of their respect. He should therefore act 
deliberately, and always conscientiously. He 
should be firm, but never petulant. It is very 
important at the outset that he should be truly 
courteous and affable. It is much wiser to request 
than to command, at least until the request has 
been disregarded. There are usually two ways 
of doing a thing, — a gentle and a rough way. 
"John, go and shut that door," in a gruff tone, 
is one way to have a door closed. John will 
undoubtedly go and shut the door — perhaps with 
a slam, — but he will not thank the teacher for 
the rough tones used in commanding it. Now it 
costs no more time or breath to say, "John, I'll 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 199 

Avoid tho suspicious spirit.— A bad boy saved. 

thank you if you will shut that door." Most 
cheerfully will John comply with the request, 
and he is grateful that he has heard these tones 
of kindness. If he could but know the teacher's 
wishes afterward, he would gladly perform them 
unasked. I would by no means recommend the 
adoption of the fawning tone of the sycophant, 
by the teacher. He should be manly and digni- 
fied ; but the language of that courtesy which 
springs from real kindness, and which ever 
becomes the gentleman, is always the most suit- 
able as well as most expedient for him. 

II. Avoid exhibiting or entertaining a suspi- 
cious spirit. It is a maxim of law, that one 
charged with crime is always to be presumed 
innocent, until proved guilty. This should be a 
maxim with the teacher who would govern well. 
There is no more direct way of making a school 
vicious, than by showing them that you suspect 
they are so. A good reputation is dear to all ; 
and even a bad boy will be restrained from 
wicked acts as long as he thinks you give him 
credit for good intentions. But if he finds that 
he has lost your good opinion, he feels that he 
has nothing further to lose by being as bad as 
you suspect him to be. A teacher is wise, there- 
fore, if he tries to see something good even in 
a vicious pupil. It may be, as it often has been, 
the means of saving such a pupil. I have known 
a very depraved boy entirely reformed in school, 
by his teacher's letting him know that he had 



200 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Token of confidence.— Employment. 

noticed some good traits in his character. He 
afterward told his teacher that "he had been so 
often suspected to be a villain, that he had almost 
come to the conclusion that he would be one ; 
but that, when he found one man who could do 
him the justice to give him credit for a few 
good feelings — (for he knew he had them) — he 
at once determined to show that man that his 
confidence had not been misplaced ; and that he 
would sooner die than knowingly offend the only 
person who ever had understood him." 

It is wise sometimes, not only to withhold the 
expression of suspicion, but to give some token 
of your confidence to the pupil who is trouble- 
some. Intrust him with some errand involving 
responsibility, or assign to him some duty by way 
of assistance to yourself, and very likely you will 
gain his good-will ever after. This is founded 
upon the well-known principle in human nature 
acted upon by Dr. Franklin, who, when he would 
gain his enemy, asked him to do him a favor. 

III. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, GIVE REGULAR AND 

full employment. It is an old proverb that " idle- 
ness is the mother of mischief." The nursery 
hymn also contains a living truth — 

" And Satan finds some mischief still 
For idle hands to do." 

It is the law of a child's nature to be active ; and 
as the teacher is placed in the school to give di- 
rection to such minds, he can hardly complain 
of their going upon forbidden objects, unless he 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 201 

The teacher may enforce employment. — Few rules. 

seasonably provides something better for them 
to do. 

Very early, then, the teacher should endeavor 
to classify his school, and furnish constant and full 
employment — whether of study, recitation, or re- 
laxation^for every hour in the day. The teacher 
should have a plan when he opens the school, 
and the sooner it is carried into full operation 
the better.* Besides, when a teacher has given 
employment, he has a right to insist upon the 
pupil's being engaged in study. Nobody will ques- 
tion this right ; and it is far more profitable to 
require a positive duty than to enjoin a nega- 
tive, — such as abstinence from whispering or from 
mischief in general. 

IV. Make but few rules. It is a very com- 
mon thing for teachers to embarrass themselves 
by a long code of requirements and prohibitions. 
Some go so far as to write out a system of laws ; 
and, annexing to each the penalty for its infringe- 
ment, post them up in a conspicuous place in the 
school-room. Others content themselves with a 
verbal announcement of them, and rely upon the 
memories of the pupils to retain the details of 
them and to govern themselves accordingly. This, 
it seems to me, is a great mistake. The multi- 
plicity of specific rules for the government of a 
school, will naturally lead to a multiplicity of 
offenses. Children will be confused by the vary- 
ing and sometimes conflicting demands of a for- 

* See Chap. xi. of this work. 



202 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

The world has been governed too much.— Do right. 

midable code of regulations, and in endeavoring 
to avoid Scylla will be likely to fall into Charyb- 
dis. It is believed by some honest statesmen that 
"the world has been governed too much"; and it 
is often alleged in support of this belief, that suc- 
cessful compliance with the laws requires far 
more wisdom than was displayed in making them ; 
that is, the science of obedience is far more ab- 
struse than the science of legislation ! Whether 
this be true in the civil world or not, I shall not 
attempt to decide ; I will only say that such has 
too often been the fact in the school-room. 

It is, in my opinion, the part of wisdom, and 
I think also the teaching of experience, that it is 
best to make but few rules. The great rule of 
duty, quoted once before, " Do unto others as you 
would that they should do to you", comprises 
quite enough to begin with. The direction — Do 
right, is a very comprehensive one. There is in 
children an ability to distinguish between right 
and wrong, upon which the teacher may ever 
rely ; and by insisting upon this as the standard, 
he daily brings into exercise the conscience of 
the child, who is called upon to decide, is this 
right f Besides, if a school is to be governed by 
a code of laws, the pupils will act upon the prin- 
ciple that whatever is not proscribed is admissi- 
ble. Consequently, without inquiring whether an 
act is right, their only inquiry will be, is it for- 
bidden 1 Now, no teacher was ever yet so wise 
as to make laws for every case ; the consequence 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 203 

Embarrassment in executing laws.— No discretion. 

is, he is daily perplexed with unforeseen troubles, 
or with some ingenious evasions of his inflexible 
code. In all this matter the worst feature is the 
fact, that the child judges of his acts by the law 
of the teacher, rather than by the law of his con- 
science, and is thus in danger of perverting and 
blunting the moral sense. 

To this it may be added, that the teacher will 
often find himself very much perplexed in at- 
tempting to judge the acts of his pupils by fixed 
laws, and in awarding to all violations of them a 
prescribed penalty. Cases will frequently occur 
in which two scholars will offend against a given 
prohibition, with altogether different intentions, — 
the one having a good motive and forgetting the 
law ; the other with the law in his mind and 
having a wicked design to violate it. Now, the 
written code, with its prescribed penalty, allows 
the teacher no discretion. He must maintain his 
law and punish both offenders, and thus violate 
his own sense of justice ; or he must pass both 
by, and thus violate his word. He can not ex- 
cuse the one and punish the other, as justice 
would evidently demand, without setting at 
naught his own laws. 

An example will illustrate this point. A 
teacher has made a rule that "any child who 
whispers without leave shall be feruled." Now 
two little boys sit side by side. William is an 
amiable, obedient, and diligent little boy, who 
has never violated intentionally any wish of his 



204 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Illustration.— A dilemma. 

teacher ; while Charles is a sour-tempered, vicious, 
unprincipled fellow, who a dozen times within a 
week has sought to make his teacher trouble. 
Little John, who sits near to William, drops his 
pencil, and it falls under William's desk. John 
looks for his pencil on the right and left of his 
seat, grows anxious and perplexed. William has 
noticed him, and he carefully picks up the pencil, 
while John perhaps is looking for it in another 
direction, — and with the kind intention of reliev- 
ing his neighbor's anxiety and restoring his prop- 
erty, he touches his elbow, and softly whispers, 
"Here is your pencil, John," — then immediately 
resumes his own studies, and is probably entirely 
unconscious of having violated any law. At the 
same instant, the artful Charles, half conceal- 
ing his face with his hand, with his wary eye 
turned to the teacher, willfully addresses another 
pupil on some point in no way connected with 
study or duty. The teacher sees both these cases 
and calls the offenders to his desk. The one 
trembles, and wonders what he has done amiss, 
while the other perhaps prepares himself to deny 
his offense, and thus to add falsehood to his other 
sins. The rule awards to both the ferule. It is 
applied to Charles with energy, and with the con- 
viction that he deserves it ; but I ask, can a man 
with any sense of justice raise his hand to punish 
William ? If so, I see not how he can ever again 
hold converse with his own conscience. Yet the 
rule allows him no discretion. He must violate 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 205 

Hint for young teachers.— Threatening.— Wake up mind. 

either the rule or his conscience ; and too often 
in such cases, he chooses the latter alternative. 

Now my advice is, make but few rules, and 
never multiply them till circumstances demand 
it. The rule of right will usually be sufficient 
without any special legislation ; and it has this 
advantage, that it leaves the teacher the largest 
discretion. 

I have been thus full on this point, because 
so many fail here, and especially young teachers. 
It has cost many a young teacher much bitter 
experience to make this discovery for himself, and 
I have desired to save others who may hereafter 
engage in teaching, the pain and perplexity which 
they may so easily and so safely avoid. 

For similar reasons, I should also urge that 
the teacher should avoid the too common prac- 
tice of threatening in his school. Threatening is 
usually resorted to as a means, of frightening 
children into their duty, — and, too often, threats 
are made without any expectation of a speedy 
necessity either to execute or disregard them. 
The consequence is, they are usually more ex- 
travagant than the reality, and the teacher's word 
soon passes at a discount ; his threats are viewed 
as very much like the barking of a dog who has 
no intention to bite. As threatening is, moreover, 
the language of impatience, it almost always leads 
to a loss of respect. 

V. Wake up mend in the school, and in the 
district. There is usually but very little trouble 



206 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Varieties in school. — Vocal imisic. 

in government where the scholars are deeply 
engaged in their studies or school exercises, and 
especially if, at the same time, the feelings of the 
parents are enlisted. To this end I would recom- 
mend that early attention should be given to 
some efforts to wake up mind, such as have been 
described in a former section of this work. It 
will be found, when skillfully conducted, one of 
the most successful instrumentalities in aid of 
good order and good feeling in the school. 

An ingenious teacher, too, may introduce other 
varieties into the school exercises, and thus some- 
times turn the attention of discontented pupils 
from some evil design to give him trouble. So 
long as the teacher keeps steadily the main object 
of his school in view, namely, progress in the 
studies, he is excusable if occasionally, to break 
up monotony and excite a deeper interest, he 
introduces a well-considered new plan of study or 
of recitation. Indeed, much of his success will 
depend upon his power to do this, and in nothing 
will its** advantages appear more obviously than 
in the government of the school. A great por- 
tion of the disorder and insubordination in our 
schools, has its origin in a want of interest in the 
school exercises. ' He is the successful teacher 
and the successful disciplinarian who can excite 
and maintain the necessary interest. 

As one of these varieties, I may mention the 
exercise of vocal music in school. I have already 
alluded to it. As a means of keeping alive the 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 207 

German proverb.— Music in heaven.— Easily introduced in schools. 

interest in a school, it is very important. Music 
is the language of the heart, and though capable 
of being grossly perverted — (and what gift of God 
is not?) — its natural tendency is to elevate the 
affections, to soothe the passions, and to refine 
the taste. 

" The Germans have a proverb," says Bishop 
Potter, "which has come down from the days of 
Luther, that where music is not, the devil enters. 
As David took his harp, when he would cause the 
evil spirit to depart from Saul, so the Germans 
employ it to expel the obduracy from the hearts 
of the depraved. In their schools for the refor- 
mation of juvenile offenders (and the same 
remark might be applied to those of our own 
country), music has been found one of the most 
effectual means of inducing docility among the 
stubborn and vicious. It would seem that so long 
as any remains of humanity linger in the heart, 
it retains its susceptibility to music. And as 
proof that music is more powerful for good than 
for evil, is it not worthy of profound consideration 
that, in all the intimations which the Bible gives 
us of a future world, music is associated only 
with the employments and happiness of Heaven ?" 

Almost any teacher can introduce music into 
his school ; because if he can not sing, he will 
always find that it will only require a little en- 
couragement to induce the scholars to undertake 
to conduct it themselves. It will consume but 
very little time, and it is always that time which, 



208 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Visit parents.— Reasons why. 

if not employed in singing, would otherwise be 
unemployed or misemployed. It is the united 
testimony of all who have judiciously introduced 
singing into their schools, that it is among the 
best instrumentalities for the promotion of good 
feeling and good order. 

VI. Visit the parents of your scholars. I 
shall more particularly enjoin this, when I speak 
of the teacher's relation to his patrons [chap, xii.] ; 
but I can not forbear in this place to urge it upon 
the teacher as one of the means of securing good 
order in school. A great deal of the insubordina- 
tion in our schools, arises from some misunder- 
standing, or some dislike entertained by the 
parent toward the teacher, and spoken of in 
presence of the children. • Whatever the pupils 
hear at home, they will be likely to exemplify 
in school. It should be the teacher's first object 
to become acquainted with the parent, and to 
let him understand, by a personal interview, all 
his plans and aims for the improvement of the 
school. This can be done best at the parent's 
own fireside. It has often happened, that by a 
friendly visit of an hour by the teacher, the 
parent's heart has been softened, his prejudices 
removed, his co-operation gained, and the cheer- 
ful and cordial obedience of his children in school 
secured. 

These visits should of course be made in the 
true spirit of the teacher. They should be made 
in the honest desire of his heart to render his 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 209 

Registers of credits.— Why credits. 

labors more successful. A visit made in such a 
spirit seldom fails to make the parents personal 
friends ever after ; and, of course, in case of a 
collision afterward between him and their chil- 
dren, this is a very important point. 

VII. Registers of Credits. Registers of the 
standing of pupils in their schools and their 
classes, are very highly recommended by some, 
whose experience is entitled to confidence. I am 
inclined to place this among the means of se- 
curing good order. I would recommend, however, 
that they should be registers of credits only. 
Some recommend the use of " black marks ", that 
is, the record of prominent faults and perhaps of 
punishments. My own experience teaches me 
that this is unwise. The teacher should not 
show a willingness to record and publish the 
faults of a pupil. He should, on the contrary, 
show a tender regard for his reputation. Besides, 
the child is less likely to be mindful of his duty, 
when his reputation is already blackened by his 
teacher. If Registers are to be kept at all, they 
should record the successes and virtues of the 
child, rather than his failures and faults. And 
if, at the end of a week or a month, he is fur- 
nished with an abstract for the inspection of his 
parents, let it be so much of good character as 
he has earned for himself during the specified 
time. 

I confess I am less sanguine than many others 
as to the utility of the register, either as an in- 



210 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Government not the business of the teacher.— Mr. Howard's remark. 

centive to obedience or diligence ; but, if used 
at all, I think the above restriction is highly 
important. % 

VIII. Avoid governing too much. By this I 
would be understood to urge upon the teacher 
the fact that his main business in school is in- 
struction and not government. Government is a 
means and not the end of school-keeping. A 
very judicious and practical teacher — Mr. R. S. 
Howard — has well remarked: '" The real object to 
be accomplished, the real end to be obtained in 
school, is to assist the pupil in acquiring knowl- 
edge, — to educate the mind and heart. To effect 
this, good order is very necessary. But when 
order is made to take the place of industry, and 
discipline the place of instruction, where the time 
of both teacher and pupils is mostly spent in 
watching each other, very little good will be 
accomplished." 

It is a mistake that many teachers fall into, 
that they seem to regard government as their 
chief occupation ; and, as we should naturally ex- 
pect in such cases, it is often very poorly exer- 
cised. That is not the best government which is 
maintained as a matter of formal business. The 
noiseless under-current is far more efficient. I 
have always noticed that men govern best when 
they do not seem to govern; and those who make 
most effort and bustle about it themselves, are 
pretty sure to have the most boisterous schools. 

I once, in company with a friend, officially 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 211 

An official visit.—" Order, there ! "—A scene. 

visited a school, where the teacher, a man of 
strong frame — six feet high, and with lungs in 
proportion — was laboring to keep order. Every 
word he uttered was in a stentorian voice which 
would have been painful to the pupils in a quiet 
room ; hence, they took care to keep up a constant 
clattering of books, slates, and rulers, mingled 
with the constant hum of their own voices, as if 
for self-defense. It seemed to be a mighty effort 
of each party to rise, if possible, above the noise 
of the other. " Silence ! Order, I say ! " was con- 
stantly ejaculated in a voice that was almost 
sufficient, as Shakspeare's Hamlet would say, to 
"split the ears of the groundlings." 

One of the most ludicrous scenes I ever wit- 
nessed, occurred in this school during an exercise 
in English grammar. The class occupied the 
back seats, while the teacher stood by the desk 
in front of the school. The children between the 
teacher and his class were variously employed, — 
some manufacturing paper fly-boxes, some whit- 
tling the benches — (it was in New England) ; some 
were trying their skill at a spit-ball warfare ; 
others were making voyages of exploration be- 
neath the seats. The school, consisting of some 
seventy pupils, were as busy as the occupants of 
an ant-hill. The sentence to be parsed was, "A 
good boy loves study." No written description 
can present the scene as it was acted in real life. 

It should be borne in mind that every word 
spoken by the teacher, whether to the class or to 



212 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Parsing.— A dialogue.—" The Rule, sir ! "—A Babel. 

the school, was in a tone of voice which might 
have been heard at least an eighth of a mile, 
and that every exclamation was accompanied by 
several energetic thumps of a large oaken "rule" 
upon the lid of his desk. The language of the 
teacher is in italics. "Mary, parse A." "A is an 
indefinite " — " Silence ! Order there ! " — " article, 
and is prefixed to " — " John ! " — " No, sir, it is pre- 
fixed to " — "Martha, Martha ! sit up ! " — " it is pre- 
fixed to— boy."— "Right."— " Good, next."— " Good 
is an adjective," — " Order, order, order I " — thump, 
thump, thump ! — " Go on, go on, I hear you ! " — 
thump, thump ! — " and belongs to " — " Speak 
louder ! Sit up there ! What are you doing ? 
And belongs to ? " — " boy." — " The Rule. TJie 
Rule ! I say." — Here several children looked ear- 
nestly at the piece of timber he held in his hand. — 
" The Rule, sir, the Rule ! " — thump, thump ! — 
"You've got it in your hand," vociferated a little 
harmless-looking fellow on the front seat, while 
the scholar proceeded to recite the rule. — "Adjec- 
tives belong to" — "Lazy, lazy fellow! sit up 
there." — Here the class smiled, and the scholar 
completed his rule, asserting, however, that "ad- 
jectives belong to nouns," and not to "lazy fel- 
lows" as the class seemed to understand the 
master to teach. Word after word was parsed in 
this way (a way of teaching our language, which, 
if we could know it had been practiced at the 
erection of Babel, would sufficiently account for 
that memorable confusion of tongues without the 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 213 

Who made it?— Another visit.— A new teacher. 

intervention of a miracle), till the teacher, nearly 
exhausted by this strange combination of mental, 
oral, and manual labor, very much to the relief 
of all, vociferated, " That'll do ! " and the scene 
was changed. 

At the close of the afternoon, we were told 
that " it was a very hard school, that it was 
almost impossible to keep order, and that he 
should be discouraged were it not that he saw a 
manifest improvement within a few days past ! " 

Now this teacher made the school what it 
was, by his own manner. He would have done 
the same in any school. He taught in the most 
effectual way the science and art of confusion ; 
and notwithstanding the hard name he gave his 
school, he was emphatically the most disorderly 
and noisy member of it. 

There was a change. On another day, accom- 
panied by the same friend, we presented our- 
selves at the door of this same room for admit- 
tance. We heard no sound as we approached the 
entrance, and almost began to suspect we should 
find there was no school within. We knocked ; 
and presently, without our hearing the footstep 
of the person who approached, the door opened, 
and we passed in. The children looked up a 
moment as we entered, and then bent their eyes 
upon their lessons. The teacher softly handed us 
seats, and then proceeded with the recitation. 
His manner was quiet and deliberate, and the 
school was orderly and busy. He had no rule in 



214 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Q-ood order.— The secret.— Excessive silence. 

his hand, no heavy boots on his feet (he had 
exchanged them for slippers on entering the 
school), and no other means of giving emphasis 
to his words. He kindly requested, — never com- 
manded, — and every thing seemed to present the 
strongest contrast with the former scene. The 
hour of dismission arrived, and the scholars quietly 
laid by their books, and as quietly walked out of 
the house, and all was still. 

" How have you secured this good order?" said 
we to the teacher. "I really do not know," said 
he with a smile, "I have said nothing about 
order." "But have you had no difficulty from 
noisy scholars ? " "A little at first ; but in a day 
or two they seemed to become quiet, and we 
have not been troubled since." 

Now the secret was, that this latter teacher 
had learned to govern himself. His own manner 
gave character to the school. So it will ever be. 
A man will govern more by his manner than in 
any other way. 

There is, too, such a thing as keeping a school 
too still by over-government. A man of firm 
nerve can, by keeping up a constant constraint 
both upon himself and pupils, force a death-like 
silence upon his school. You may hear a pin drop 
at any time, and the figure of every child is as 
if molded in cast iron. But, be it remembered, 
this is the stillness of constraint, not the stillness 
of activity. It is an unhealthy state both of body 
and mind, and when attained by the most vigi- 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 215 

Recapitulation.— Force sometimes needful. 

lant care of the teacher, is a condition scarcely to 
be desired. There should be silence in school, a 
serene and soothing quiet ; but it should if pos- 
sible be the quiet of cheerfulness and agreeable 
devotion to study, rather than the " palsy of fear." 



Thus far I have confined myself to those quali- 
fications in the teacher, and to those means which, 
under ordinary circumstances and in most dis- 
tricts, would in my opinion secure good order in 
our schools. With the qualifications I have de- 
scribed in the mental and moral condition of the 
teacher, and the means and suggestions above 
detailed — combined, I believe a very large major- 
ity of our schools could be most successfully 
governed without any appeal to fear or force. 

But as some schools are yet in a very bad 
state, requiring more than ordinary talents and 
skill to control them ; and as very many of those 
who must teach for a long time to come, have 
not, and can not be expected to have, all the 
qualifications described, and much less the moral 
power insisted on, it is unreasonable to expect, 
taking human nature as it is, and our teachers 
as they are, that all can govern their schools 
without some appeals to the lower motives of 
children and some resort to coercion as an instru- 
mentality. I should leave this discussion very 
incomplete, therefore, were I not to present my 
views upon the subject of 



216 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Punishment defined.— Comments on definition. 

SECTION III.— PUNISHMENTS. 

As a great deal has been written and spoken 
upon the subject of school punishments, I deem 
it important that the term, as I intend to use it, 
should be defined at the outset. I submit the 
following definition : 

Punishment is pain inflicted upon the mind 
or body op an individual by the authority to 
which he is subject; with a view either to 
reform him, or to deter others from the com- 
mission of offenses, or both. 

It is deemed essential to the idea of punish- 
ment that the inflictor have legitimate authority 
over the subject of it, — otherwise, the act is an 
act of usurpation. It is also essential that the 
inflictor should have a legitimate object in view, 
such as the reformation of the individual or of 
the community in which his example has exerted 
an influence, — otherwise, the act becomes an abuse 
of power. Infliction for the purpose of retaliation 
for an insult or injury, is not punishment ; it is 
revenge. Whenever, therefore, a teacher resorts 
to such infliction to gratify his temper, or to 
pay off, as it is expressed in common language, 
the bad conduct of a pupil, without any re- 
gard to his reformation or the prevention of 
similar offenses in the school, the pain he 
inflicts is not punishment ; it is cruelty. Very 
great importance is to be attached to the motive 
in this matter; because the same infliction 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 217 

"Whence authority is derived.— Dr. "Webster.— A common error. 

upon the same individual and for the same 
offense, may either be just and proper punish- 
ment, or it may be the most unjustifiable and 
revengeful abuse, according to the motive of the 
inflictor. 

The authority to inflict punishment in general, 
is either by the constitution of God or of civil 
society. " The punishment of the faults and of- 
fenses of children by the parent," says Dr. Web- 
ster, " is by virtue of the right of government 
with which the parent is invested by God him- 
self." The right to punish the offenses of chil- 
dren while at school, is by the common law 
vested in the teacher, as the representative of 
the parent for the time being. It is the declara- 
tion of this law as interpreted from time imme- 
morial, that the teacher is in loco parentis — in 
place of the parent. 

Some have alleged that fear and shame, the 
two principles addressed by pu'nishment, are 
among the lowest in our nature ; and have hence 
endeavored to show that punishment is always 
inexpedient, if not indeed always wrong. To this 
I answer, that both fear and shame are incor- 
porated in our nature by God himself ; and hence 
I infer they are there for a wise purpose. I find, 
moreover, that God himself, in his word and in 
his providence, does appeal to both of these prin- 
ciples ; and hence I infer that punishment in the 
abstract is not wrong, and after the higher motives 
have been addressed, not altogether inexpedient. 



218 SCHOOL GOVEBNMENT. 

The right assumed.— Plan of discussion.— Two classes. 

Living in a community as we do, where the 
right of punishment in general, is assumed by 
our government, and the right of teachers to 
punish is conceded by our laws, I do not feel 
called upon to establish the right by argument ; 
I shall assume that the teacher has the right to 
punish, in the sense in which I have defined pun- 
ishment, — and shall therefore proceed to consider 
the various kinds of punishments used in our 
schools, and to distinguish those which are justi- 
fiable from those which are not ; and also to con- 
sider some of the conditions and limitations of 
their use. 

In preparing the way to do this, I may remark 
that punishments consist of two classes. 1 . Those 
which address themselves directly to the mind ; 
as privation from privileges, loss of liberty, degra- 
dation, some act of humiliation, reproof, and the 
like. 2. Those which address the mind through 
the body ; as the imposition of a task — labor, for 
instance, — requiring the pupil to take some pain- 
ful attitude, inflicting bodily chastisement, etc. 

I have mentioned these two classes for the 
purpose of calling attention to the fact, that 
there are those who approve of the first class, 
and at the same time denounce the second, scout- 
ing the idea of reaching the mind through the 
senses of the body. This seems to me, however, 
to indicate a want of attention to the laws of our 
being ; for in the economy of nature, we are made 
at every point sensitive to pain as a means of 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 219 



; 



Mind may be reached through the body.— Improper punishments. 

guarding against injury. Why has the Creator 
studded the entire surface of our bodies with the 
extremities of nerves, whose function is to carry to 
the brain with lightning speed the intelligence of 
the approach of danger? And why should this 
intelligence be transmitted, if its object is not to 
influence the will, either to withdraw the suffer- 
ing part from immediate danger, or to avoid 
those objects which cause the pain? The mind, 
then, by the economy of nature, or rather by the 
arrangement of God, is capable of being influ- 
enced through the bodily sensations ; and those 
who deny this, either do not observe attentively, 
or, observing, do not reason fairly as to the laws 
of our being. With these preliminary observa- 
tions, I now proceed to consider, 

I. Improper Punishments. Some punishments 
are always wrong, or at least always inexpedient. 
The infliction of them either implies a wrong 
feeling on the part of the teacher, or it promises 
no wholesome result on the part of the pupil. I 
shall mention in detail, 1. Those that from their 
nature excite the feeling in the pupil, that an 
indignity has been committed against his person. 
No man is ready to forgive another for ivringing 
his nose. There is almost a universal sentiment 
that this organ is specially exempted from such 
insult. Nearly the same feeling exists as to 
pinching or pulling the ear, or twisting the hair, 
or snapping the forehead. Each child feels that 
these parts of his person are not to be trifled 



220 SCHOOL GOVEKISTMENT. 

Head to be exempted from infliction. 

with, and the feeling is natural and proper. Now, 
though it is not common for teachers to wring 
the noses of their pupils, it is very common for 
them to do each of the other things enumerated. 
I have often seen such punishments ; but I think 
I never saw any good come of them. The pupil 
always looked as if the teacher had done despite 
toward his person. Whenever I have seen the 
teacher twist the locks of a child's hair about his 
finger till the tears would start in the eye, I have 
supposed the feelings called forth were any thing 
but desirable, — any thing but favorable to refor- 
mation. A pupil must love his teacher very 
strongly, to be able to keep his temper from 
rising under such circumstances ; and there is 
great doubt whether either of these punishments 
does any thing to secure cheerful obedience in 
the child, one time in a hundred ; probably in 
ninety-nine cases in the hundred, the evil pas- 
sions are very much strengthened by them. Be- 
sides, these are undignified modes of punishment. 
They savor so much of a weak and childish im- 
patience, that the pupils find it hard to respect a 
man, much more to love him, who will stoop to 
so small a way of giving vent to his angry feel- 
ings. Snapping the forehead is subject to strong 
physiological objections ; and, as a general rule, the 
head and its appurtenances should be exempted 
from penal violence. 

In this place I may very properly allude to 
another mode of assailing the ears of children, 



. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 221 

Scolding.— Poor investment. 

quite as undignified, in itself, and quite as un- 
profitable in its results, as pulling them, — and 
until they are hardened to it by familiarity, prob- 
ably more painful. I refer, I need not say, to 
scolding. This is a punishment altogether too 
common. There is a physiological law, that the 
exercise of any organ will give it greater strength 
and generally greater celerity. From this fact, 
and the additional one, that the more a child is 
scolded the harder his heart becomes, so that 
here, as in the Rule of Three, " more requires 
more," — it follows that those who once begin to 
scold, are fortunate if they stop short of high 
attainments in the art. 

There is no enterprise in which the investment 
yields so small a profit, as the, business of scold- 
ing. It is really pitiable to witness the teacher 
given to this practice, making himself and all 
around him unhappy, without the hope of allevia- 
tion. The command of the tongue is a great virtue 
in a teacher ; and it is to be feared that very many 
children still suffer in their moral feelings* as well 
as their ears, because so many teachers do not 
seasonably learn the right control of the " unruly 
member ". 

While upon this subject, I may allude to 



* A blacksmith, it is said, who had been accustomed to scold his 
family, quite too freely, was one day attempting to harden a piece of 
steel ; but failing after two or three attempts, his little son, who had 
been an observer of this as well as other operations of his father, is said 
to have exclaimed, " Scold it, father, scold it— if that ivonH harden it, nothing 
else will." 



222 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Cockney blackguardism.— Examples.— Beg pardon. 

another very objectionable mode of address prac- 
ticed by some teachers toward their schools. I 
refer to a mixture of scolding with a species of 
low wit or cockney blackguardism, that should 
ever be banished from the school-room. Such 
expressions as, " Sit down, John, or I'll shiver your 
top-timbers" — "Attend to your studies, or some 
of you will be a head shorter" — "Keep quiet, or 
you'll hear thunder," — and the like. To these I 
might add those empty and debasing threats 
which are too often and too thoughtlessly uttered ; 
as, "I'll skin you alive," or "I'll shake you to 
pieces," or "I'll use you up," — with others of the 
same character. I perhaps ought to beg pardon 
for placing these vulgarisms before the general 
reader ; but they are so frequently employed in 
our schools, in some of our schools of good repute, 
too, that I thought it to be my duty to quote 
them (for they are all literal quotations), in order 
if possible to aid those who have fallen into 
such a low habit, to see themselves as others see 
them. 

It is so very easy for a teacher to raise a laugh 
among his pupils, that he is in danger of being 
seduced into the use of coarse and quaint expres- 
sions by the supposition that they are witty. But 
the mirth of school-boys is not a more reliable 
criterion of wit in the modern teacher, than it was 
in the case of the school-master described by Gold- 
smith ; and possibly the exercise of a little discern- 
ment on his part would convince him that children 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 223 

Prolonged tortures.— The Bible at arm's length. 

sometimes laugh, as they did of old, because they 
think it prudent to do so. 

" A man severe he was and stern to view, 
I knew him well, and every truant knew; 
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace 
The day's disasters in his morning face; 
Pull well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, 
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he ! " 

It is unquestionably true that there are schools 
and many such, now of high standing, the lan- 
guage of whose teachers, could it be noted down 
and printed for the parents, would perfectly as- 
tonish them ; and such is the force of habit, it 
would very likely astonish the teachers them- 
selves. Let all who mean to respect themselves, 
or who desire to be long respected by others, most 
carefully avoid the first approach to the use of 
such kind of language. Its influence in school 
is "only evil, and that continually. 1 ' 

2. Those punishments that from their nature 
imply in the inflictor a love of prolonged torture. 
These are quite numerous, and are resorted to, 
often for the purpose of avoiding what is usually 
deemed severer punishment. Some of them also 
have very serious physiological objections. As an 
instance, I may mention the holding of a weight 
at arm's length until the muscles of the arm 
become painful from over-exertion and fatigue. 
Sometimes the Bible, being the largest book at 
hand, is chosen as the weight ; and thus that book, 
which should have no associations connected with 
it in the minds of the young, but those of rever- 



224 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT,. 

Physiological effects.— Moral effects. 

ence and love, is made the instrument of torture — 
the minister of cruelty ! 

Imagine that you see — what I have seen — an 
offending boy called to the teacher's desk, and, 
after words of reproach, sentenced to hold the 
large Bible at arm's length for a specified time, 
or until the teacher is willing to release him. At 
first it is raised with a smile of triumph, almost 
a smile of contempt. Soon the muscles thus ex- 
erted at disadvantage, begin to be weary and to 
relax. " Hold it up ! " exclaims the vigilant teacher, 
and it is again brought to its position. Sooner 
than before the muscles are fatigued, and they 
almost refuse to obey the mandate of the will, 
which itself is half willing to rebel against au- 
thority so unreasonable. "Up with it!" — again 
brings it to its place, or perhaps a stroke of the 
rattan repeats the command with more urgency. 
At this moment every nerve sympathizes, and 
the muscles are urged on to their greatest effort. 
The limb is in agony, — and what agony can sur- 
pass that of an overstrained muscle? — and the 
whole system reels and writhes with suffering. 
Now look into that child's face, and tell me, what 
is the moral effect of this sort of punishment? 
Unless he is one of the most amiable of the sons 
of Adam, he inwardly curses the cruelty that he 
thinks is delighted with pangs like these, pro- 
tracted yet intolerable. He almost curses the 
blessed book which was given to warm his soul 
into life and immortality. He cries with pain, 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 225 

Hold a nail ! — Sitting on nothing. — On worse than nothing. 

but not with penitence. He may submit, indeed, 
and he may abstain from similar offenses in time 
to come ; but it is the submission of self-pres- 
ervation, and the abstinence of an eye-servant. — 
while the stain that has thus been inwrought in 
his moral sensibilities, may long remain unex- 
punged. Such a punishment I unhesitatingly 
pronounce to be improper, whatever may be the 
circumstances. 

Akin to this are those other contrivances to 
give prolonged pain, which in different parts of 
the country have taken a variety of forms, and 
as great a variety of names. One of these has 
been termed " holding a nail into the floor.'" It 
consists in requiring the pupil to bend forward, — 
and, placing the end of a single finger upon the 
head of a nail, to remain in that position till the 
whole system is agonized. Another has, by some 
of its inflictors, been termed " sitting on nothing.'' 
The pupil is required to place his back against 
a wall of the room, and his feet perhaps a foot 
from its base, and then to slide his body down till 
the knees are bent at right angles, and his person 
is in a sitting posture without a seat ! The 
muscles, acting over the knee at the greatest dis- 
advantage, are now made to support the body in 
that position during the pleasure of the teacher. 
I have seen another mode of punishment prac- 
ticed, and as I have heard no name for it, I shall 
give it the cognomen of ''sitting on worse than 
nothing." The boy in this case was required to 



226 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



Ridicule.— Why objectionable. 



sit upon the floor, and then, placing the feet 
upon a bench or chair, to support the body in 
an erect position by reversed action of the 
muscles ! 

But I gladly turn away from a description of 
the punishments I have witnessed in the common 
schools of New England within a quarter of a 
century, exhibiting as they do so many character- 
istics of the dark ages. Some of these I have 
witnessed quite recently ; and to what extent any 
or all of them are now in use, I am unable to 
say. I only desire to say, that they are all im- 
proper, — debasing to the morals of the pupils, and 
degrading to the profession of the teacher ; and 
the sooner such punishments are entirely ban- 
ished from our school-rooms, the sooner will the 
profession of the teacher rise to its proper level. 

3. Ridicule. This is a weapon that should not 
be wielded as a school-punishment. It often cuts 
deeper than he who uses it imagines ; and it 
usually gives most pain where it is least merited. 
Some physical defect, or some mental incapacity, 
or eccentricity, is most frequently made the sub- 
ject of it ; and yet nothing can be more unfeeling 
or more unjust than its use in such cases. If the 
designed failings of the indolent, or the premedi- 
tated mischief of the vicious, could be subjected 
to its influence, its use would be more allowable, — 
but even then it would be questionable. But the 
indolent and the vicious are usually unaffected 
by ridicule. They sin upon calculation, and not 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 227 

Loss of love — of confidence. 

without counting the cost ; and they are therefore 
very willing to risk their reputation, where they 
have so little to lose. It is the modest, the con- 
scientious, the well-meaning child, that is most 
affected by ridicule ; yet it is such a one that, for 
various reasons, is oftenest made the subject of 
it, though of all children, his feelings should be 
most tenderly spared. 

A strong objection to the use of ridicule, is the 
feeling which it induces between the teacher and 
pupil. The teacher, conscious that he has, injured 
the feelings of the child, will find it hard to love 
him afterward ; for we seldom love those whom 
we have injured. The child, on the other hand, 
loses confidence in his teacher ; he feels that his 
sensibilities have been outraged before his com- 
panions, and that the teacher, who should be his 
best friend in the school, has invited the heartless 
laugh of his fellow-pupils against him. With a 
want of love on the one hand, and of confidence 
on the other, what further usefulness can reason- 
ably be expected? 

But the strongest objection of all to the use of 
ridicule, is the fact that it calls forth the worst 
of feelings in the school. Those who participate 
in the laugh thus excited, are under the influ- 
ence of no very amiable motives. And when this 
is carried so far as to invite, by direct words, 
some expression from the school-mates, by point- 
ing the finger of shame, and perhaps accom- 
panying the act by a hiss of scorn, the most 



228 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Little Mary. — A scene. 

deplorable spirit of self - righteousness is culti- 
vated. 

Little Mary was detected one day in a wrong 
act by her teacher. "Mary, come here," said the 
teacher, sternly. Little thinking she had been 
seen, she obeyed promptly, and stood by the 
chair of her teacher, who, without giving Mary 
time to reflect, and thus allow the conscience 
opportunity to gain the mastery, immediately 
asked, "What naughty thing did I see you do 
just now?" "Nothing," said Mary, partly dis- 
posed to justify herself, and partly doubting 
whether indeed the teacher had seen her do any 
thing wrong. " Oh, Mary, Mary, who would think 
you would tell me a lie ! Did you ever hear of 
Ananias and Sapphira?" Here a lecture followed 
on the sin and danger of lying, and particularly 
the danger of sudden death by the vengeance 
of God. Mary began to tremble, and then to 
weep, probably from terror. Now came the second 
part. "I should think you would be ashamed to 
be known to lie. All the children now know 
that you have lied. I should think they would 
feel ashamed of such a naughty little girl in the 
school. I should not wonder," she continued, "if 
all the little girls and boys should point their 
fingers at you and hiss. 1 ' In an instant, all the 
children who were not too old to be disgusted 
with the management and tone of the teacher, 
pointed their fingers, and uttered a long succes- 
sion of hisses, while their faces beamed with all 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 229 

Self-righteousness.— Defiance.— Freezing the affections. 

the complacency of self-righteousness, triumph- 
ing over the fall of a companion, who perhaps 
was, after all, as good and as truthful a child as 
any of them. The poor child at first turned her 
back upon them ; but soon, feeling that her 
reputation was gone, she turned, as woman ever 
will when her self-respect is blighted, with a look 
of indifference, almost a look of defiance. Fear 
was first swallowed up in shame, and shame 
gave place to reckless audacity. The whole scene 
was rendered still more ruinous to the child, from 
the fact that it took place in the presence of 
visitors ! 

When will our teachers learn the human heart 
well enough to be able to distinguish between a 
work of devastation and of true culture ; between 
a process of blighting the sensibilities, searing 
the conscience, freezing up the fountains of sym- 
pathy, and of mutual love and confidence, — and 
a course of training which warms the conscience 
into activity, inculcates the reverence and love 
of God, instead of a slavish fear of his power, 
and instills into the soul a desire to do rigid, 
rather than to do that which will avoid the 
reproach of an unfeeling multitude, more wicked 
than those they censure? Goldsmith has shown 
that woman may " stoop to conquer " ; but the 
above narrative shows how she may stoop, not 
to conquer, but to lay waste the youthful heart. 

These punishments, and such as these, which 
I have classed under the list of improper punish- 



230 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Let teachers think.— Proper punishments.— Reproof in private. 

ments, should all be carefully considered by the 
teacher. They should be considered before he 
enters his school. It would always be well for 
him to determine beforehand what punishments 
he will not use. It may save him many a seri- 
ous mistake. I have written what I have under 
this head, in order to put teachers upon thought ; 
believing that men seldom earnestly and hon- 
estly inquire, without arriving at the truth in 
the end. 

II. Proper punishments. Every teacher's mind 
should, if possible, be settled, as to what punish- 
ments are proper, so that when they are inflicted, 
it can be done in good faith and with an honest 
conviction of the performance of duty. Among 
the proper punishments, I may mention — 

1. Kind Reproof. This will probably be con- 
ceded by all. I say kind reproof, because no 
other reproof can be useful. I would distinguish 
it from reproach. Reproof, judiciously admin- 
istered, is one of the most effectual punishments 
that can be used. As a general rule, this is best 
administered privately. The child's spirit of 
obstinacy is very likely to exhibit itself in the 
presence of his fellows ; but in private, the con- 
science is free to act, and the child very readily 
submits. It is always perfectly safe to reprove 
privately ; that is, not in the presence of the 
school. The child has no motive to misrepresent 
the teacher ; and if the teacher so far spares the 
reputation of the pupil, as to take him by him- 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 231 

Loss of privileges, consequent upon abuse.— Confinement. 

self, this very circumstance will often give the 
teacher access to his better feelings. 

2. Loss of Privileges. By abuse of privileges 
we forfeit them. This is a law of Providence. 
It is unquestionably proper that this should be 
a law of our schools. All those offenses, there- 
fore, against propriety in the exercise of any 
privilege, may be attended with a temporary or 
permanent deprivation of such privilege. A pupil 
who is boisterous at the recess, disturbing the 
quiet of the school or impeding the enjoyment 
of his playfellows, may be deprived of the recess. 
A child, who disfigures his seat with his knife, 
may be deprived of his knife ; and so for any 
other similar offense. Some consider it proper 
to extend this punishment to other classes of 
offenses ; as, for example, whispering or idleness. 
While I would not deny the right or the propriety 
of doing so, I should think it more expedient not 
thus to extend it. It is well, as far as it can be 
done, so to punish the child, that he shall see that 
his conduct naturally leads to its punishment as 
a consequence. And it is, moreover, very probable 
that in most schools there will be demand enough 
for this punishment, in its natural application, 
without extending it to other cases. 

3. Restraint, or confinement. When liberty 
is abused, a scholar may be put under restraint. 
When duty is violated, and the rights of others 
are wantonly disregarded, confinement will afford 
time for reflection, and at the same time relieve 



232 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Not in a dark room.— Why not.— Humiliation.— Seldom. 

others from the annoyance and detriment of evil 
example. Such restraint is often a wholesome 
discipline ; and confinement, if it be not too far 
protracted, is always safe. It should be remarked, 
however, that confinement in a dark apartment 
should never be resorted to by any teacher. 
There are insuperable objections to it, growing 
out of the fears which many children early en- 
tertain of being alone in the dark, as also the 
fact that light as well as air is necessary to the 
vigorous action of the nervous system during 
the waking hours, especially in the day-time. It 
is well known that a child shut up in a dark room 
even in the warmth of summer, speedily under- 
goes a depression of temperature ; and if the 
confinement is unduly protracted, cold chills 
come over the system. For these reasons, and 
others, if confinement is ever used as a punish- 
ment, it should be in a room properly lighted 
and heated. Our prisoners enjoy, as far as may 
be, both of these favors. 

4. Humiliation. This should be resorted to 
with great caution. When a fault has been openly 
committed, and attended with circumstances of 
peculiar obstinacy, it may sometimes very prop- 
erly be required of the offender that he should 
confess the fault in a manner as public as its 
commission. This may be due to the school. 
Sometimes, when an offensive act is very strongly 
marked, a confession and a request for the for- 
giveness of the teacher or the individual injured 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 233 



A task.— When and how. 



may be made a condition of restoration to favor. 
This is usually considered a very proper punish- 
ment. I would, however, suggest, that it be used 
with great care, and never unless the circum- 
stances imperatively demand it. It may be the 
means of cultivating the grossest hypocrisy, or 
of inducing open rebellion ; and it sometimes 
gives the other pupils an advantage over the 
culprit, which may do him personally much 
harm. The teacher should be convinced that 
this is the best thing he can do, before he resorts 
to it. 

5. The imposition of a task. In every school 
there is more or less work to be done ; such as 
sweeping the floors, washing the benches, pre- 
paring the fuel, and making the fires. Unless 
objection should be made by parents, this is one 
of the most effectual punishments, especially in 
cities and large villages, where work is a burden, 
and the attractions of play are most powerful. 
Some difficult schools have been governed for 
months with no other punishment than labor 
thus imposed. The plan is, that if two boys 
neglect their studies so as to attract the atten- 
tion of the teacher, they shall be nominated as 
members of the committee on sweeping, — a duty 
to be performed after school hours. If one or 
two more are decidedly disorderly, they shall be 
required to make fires, bring up wood, or perhaps 
wash a certain portion of the room. This is 
always assigned pleasantly by the teacher, with 



234 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT. 

An objection.— Answer.— Not strongly urged.— The rod. 

the understanding, however, that any failure to 
do the allotted work thoroughly and faithfully, 
will be attended with a reappointment till the 
object is secured. 

If parents should object to this, it is not abso- 
lutely essential to the teacher's success ; but 
where no objection is made, if judiciously man- 
aged, it may do very much in many of our schools 
toward producing that quiet order, which other- 
wise it might require more cogent and less agree- 
able means to secure. 

It has sometimes been urged as an objection 
to this mode of punishment, that it would tend 
to attach the idea of disgrace to useful labor. It 
is conceived that this is by no means the neces- 
sary consequence. On the other hand, it would 
serve to teach the difference there always is be- 
tween a duty imposed and one voluntarily under- 
taken. The same objection would apply to our 
prison discipline, where a man by a willful disre- 
gard of law and the rights of others, very justly 
forfeits his services for a time to the State. 

I would not lay very much stress upon this 
mode of punishment, though I have known it 
resorted to, under favorable circumstances, with 
very good effect. It would, of course, be more 
effectual in a large town or city, than in the 
country, where boys are in the habit of laboring 
at home and would be quite as willing to labor 
after regular hours at school. 

6. Actual chastisement ivith the rod of correc- 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 235 

Corporal punishment.— Views of others. — Nothing to conceal. 

Hon. I have no hesitation (though others have) 
in placing this among the class of proper punish- 
ments. As this involves a great question on the 
subject of school government, and one that is 
debated with great zeal and warmth in almost 
every educational meeting that is held, I shall 
feel justified in giving a little more space to the 
consideration of it. 



SECTION IV.— CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 

I am aware that when I enter this field I am 
treading on ground every inch of which has been 
disputed. I come to the task of writing on this 
subject, however, I think, without prejudice or 
asperity. Having nothing to conceal, I shall ex- 
press my own views honestly and frankly,— views 
which I entertain after diligently seeking the 
truth for some twenty years, during which time 
I have listened to a great deal of discussion, and 
have read carefully and candidly whatever has 
been written by others. Nor do I expect to give 
universal satisfaction. There are strong men, and 
I believe honest men, who run to the opposite 
extremes in their doctrine and practice, and who 
defend the one course or the other as if the ex- 
istence of the world depended upon the issue. 
There are those who not only claim the right to 
chastise, but who insist that whipping should be 
the first resort of the teacher in establishing his 
authority ; and to show that this is not a dormant 



236 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Men see differently.— A privilege claimed.— Authority at any rate. 

article of their faith, they daily and almost hourly 
demonstrate their efficiency in the use of the rod, 
so that their pupils may be living witnesses that 
they act • in accordance with their creed. Again, 
there are others who as earnestly deny the right 
of the teacher to resort to the rod at all, and who 
urge with all their power the efficacy of moral 
suasion to subdue and control the vicious and 
the stubborn in our schools ; and who are ready 
to assert unequivocally that no man is fit to be 
employed to teach the young, who has not the 
ability to govern all the various dispositions he 
may meet in any school, without the use of cor- 
poral punishment. 

I have no disposition to question the sincerity 
and honesty of each of these classes, knowing as 
I do, that different men see with different eyes, 
even when the circumstances are the same ; much 
more when their circumstances are widely diverse. 
I have no bitterness of language to apply to those 
who go to the extreme of severity ; nor any sneer 
to bestow upon the name of " moral-suasionist." 
But while I accord to other men the right of ex- 
pressing their own opinions, I claim the same 
privilege for myself, — yet without wishing to ob- 
trude my opinions upon other men any further 
than they will bear the test of reason and expe- 
rience. 

It is agreed on all hands that the teacher 
must establish authority in some way, before he 
can pursue successfully the objects of his school. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 237 

We must take the world as it is.— Mr. Mann quoted. 

I have described the qualifications which the 
teacher should possess in order to govern well, 
and I have also given some of the means of se- 
curing good order without a resort to severity. 
Probably in a large majority of our schools, the 
teacher with these qualifications and the employ- 
ment of these means, could succeed in establish- 
ing and maintaining good order without any such 
resort. This should, in my opinion, always be 
done, if possible, — and no one will rejoice more 
than myself to see the day, should that day ever 
come, when teachers shall be so much improved 
as to be able to do this universally. But in 
writing on this subject, it is the dictate of com- 
mon sense to take human nature as it is, and 
human teachers as they are, and as many of 
them must be, for some time to come, — and adapt 
our directions to the circumstances. Human 
nature, as it is exhibited in our children, is far 
from being perfect ; and I am sorry to say that 
the parents of our children often exhibit it in a 
still less flattering light. Perhaps no language 
of mine can so well represent the concurrence 
of circumstances making corporal punishment 
necessary in our schools, as it has been done by 
the Hon. Horace Mann in his lecture on " School 
Punishments." " The first point," says he, "which 
I shall consider, is, whether corporal punishment 
is ever necessary in our schools. As preliminary 
to a decision of this question, let us take a brief 
survey of facts. We have in this Commonwealth 



238 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Difficulties to be met, — in children,— in parents. 

[Massachusetts], above one hundred and ninety- 
two thousand children between the ages of four 
and sixteen years. All these children are not 
only legally entitled to attend our public schools, 
but it is our great desire to increase that attend- 
ance, and he who increases it is regarded as a 
reformer. All that portion of these children who 
attend school, enter it from that vast variety of 
homes which exist in the State. From different 
households, where the widest diversity of parental 
and domestic influences prevails, the children 
enter the school-room, where- there must be com- 
parative uniformity. At home, some of these 
children have been indulged in every wish, flat- 
tered and smiled upon for the energies of their 
low propensities, and even their freaks and whims 
enacted into household laws. Some have been 
so rigorously debarred from every innocent amuse- 
ment and indulgence, that they have opened for 
themselves a way to gratification, through arti- 
fice . and treachery and falsehood. Others, from 
vicious parental example, and the corrupting 
influences of vile associates, have been trained 
to bad habits and contaminated with vicious 
principles, ever since they were born ; — some 
being taught that honor consists in whipping a 
boy larger than themselves ; others, that the chief 
end of man is to own a box that can not be 
opened, and to get money enough to fill it ; and 
others again have been taught, upon their father's 
knees, to shape their young lips to the utterance 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 239 

A dilemma. 

of oaths and blasphemy. Now all these disposi- 
tions, which do not conflict with right more than 
they do with each other, as soon as they cross 
the threshold of the school-room, from the dif- 
ferent worlds, as it were, of homes, must be 
made to obey the same general regulations, to 
pursue the same studies, and to aim at the same 
results. In addition to these artificial varieties, 
there are natural differences of temperament and 
disposition. 

" Again : there are about three thousand pub- 
lic schools in the State, in which are employed, 
in the course of the year, about five thousand 
different persons, as teachers, including both 
males and females. Excepting a very few cases, 
these five thousand persons have had no special 
preparation or training for their employment, 
and many of them are young and without expe- 
rience. These five thousand teachers, then, so 
many of whom are unprepared, are to be placed 
in authority over the one hundred and ninety- 
two thousand children, so many of whom, have 
been perverted. Without passing through any 
transition state for improvement, these parties 
meet each other in the school-room, where mutiny 
and insubordination and disobedience are to be 
repressed, order maintained, knowledge acquired. 
He, therefore, who denies the necessity of resort- 
ing to punishment, in our schools, — and to cor- 
poral punishment, too, — virtually affirms two 
things : — first, that this great number of children, 



240 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Neither horn to be chosen.— A miracle. 

scooped up from all places, taken at all ages and 
in all conditions, can be deterred from the wrong 
and attracted to the right without punishment ; 
and secondly, he asserts that the five thousand 
persons whom the towns and districts employ to 
keep their respective schools, are now, and in 
the present condition of things, able to accom- 
plish so glorious a work. Neither of these prop- 
ositions am I at present prepared to admit. If 
there are extraordinary individuals — and we know 
there are such — so singularly gifted with talent 
and resources, and with the divine quality of 
love, that they can win the affection, and, by 
controlling the heart, can control the conduct of 
children, who, for years, have been addicted to 
he, to cheat, to swear, to steal, to fight, — still I 
do not believe there are now five thousand such 
individuals in the State, whose heavenly services 
can be obtained for this transforming work. 
And it is useless, or worse than useless, to say, 
that such or such a thing can be done, and done 
immediately, without pointing out the agents by 
whom it can be done. One who affirms that a 
thing can be done, without any reference to the 
persons who can do it, must be thinking of mira- 
cles. If the position were, that children may be 
so educated from their birth, and teachers may 
be so trained for their calling, as to supersede 
the necessity of corporal punishment, except in 
cases decidedly monstrous, then I should have 
no doubt of its truth ; but such a position must 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 241 

Divisions in district.— East end.— West end.— " "We will sec." 

have reference to some future period, which we 
should strive to hasten, but ought not to an- 
ticipate." 

Aside from the causes demanding punishment, 
so ably portrayed in the passage just quoted, 
there is still another, growing out of divisions and 
quarrels in the district. It is by no means uncom- 
mon, in our districts, owing to some local matter, 
or to some disunion in politics or religion, for the 
people to be arrayed, the one part against the other. 
The inhabitants of the upper road are jealous of 
the dwellers on the lower road ; the hill portion of 
the district is aggrieved by the influence of the 
'valley portion ; the " east end " complains of the 
selfishness of the "west end," and so of the north 
and south. Whenever a school-house is to be 
built, these different interests are aroused, and a 
protracted and baleful quarrel is the result. One 
party "carries the day" by the force of numbers, 
but the prosperity of the school is impaired for 
years. At every district meeting, there will be 
the same strife for the mastery. If one divis- 
ion gains the power, the other bends its ener- 
gies to cripple the school, and to annoy the 
teacher who may be employed by the dominant 
party, however excellent or deserving he may be. 
"We will see," say those who find themselves in 
the minority, " we will see whether this man can 
keep our school as well as it was done last year 
by our master." This is uttered in presence of 
their children — perhaps their half-grown sons, 



242 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



Disobedience encouraged. — The teacher's course. 



who will be very ready to meet their new teacher 
with prejudice, and to act out the misgivings of 
their parents as to his success. When the teacher 
first enters the school, he is met by opposition, 
even before he has time to make an impression 
for good ; opposition, which he can scarcely hope 
to surmount as long as it is thus encouraged at 
home. Now, what shall he do? Shall he yield 
the point, abandon the idea of authority, and en- 
deavor to live along from day to day, in the hope 
of a more comfortable state of things by and by ? 
He may be sure that matters will daily grow 
worse. Shall he give up in despair and leave 
the school to some successor? This will only 
strengthen the opposition and make it more vio- 
lent when the successor shall be appointed. It is 
but putting the difficulty one step farther off. 
Besides, if the teacher does thus give up, and 
leave the school, he loses his own reputation as a 
man of energy, and, in the eyes of the world, 
who perhaps may not know — or care to know — all 
the circumstances, he is held ever after as incom- 
petent for the office. 

Now, it would be very gratifying if the teacher, 
under any or all of these difficulties, could possess 
the moral power to quell them all by a look or 
by the exercise of his ingenuity in interesting his 
pupils in their studies. Undoubtedly there are 
some men who could do it, and do it most tri- 
umphantly, so as to make their most zealous 
enemies, in a few days their warmest friends. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 243 



Shall he yield? No, no.— Establish authority. 



But there are not many who can work thus at 
disadvantage. What, then, shall be done? Shall 
the school be injured by being disbanded, and the 
teacher be stigmatized for a failure, when he has 
been employed in good faith ? I say no. He has 
the right to establish authority by corporal inflic- 
tion ; and thus to save the school and also save 
himself. And more than this ; — if there is rea- 
sonable ground to believe that by such infliction 
he can establish order, and thus make himself 
useful, and save the time and the character of 
the school, he not only has the right, but he is 
bound by duty to use it. The lovers of order in 
the district have a right to expect him to use it, 
unless by express stipulation beforehand, they 
have exempted him from it. I repeat, then, that 
it is the teacher's duty to establish authority ; 
"peaceably, indeed, if he may, — forcibly, if he 
must." 

I ought in fairness here to add, as I have be- 
fore hinted, that not unfrequently the necessity 
for corporal infliction exists in the teacher him- 
self. This is often proved by a transfer of 
teachers. One man takes a school, and can only 
survive his term by the exercise of whipping. 
He is followed by another who secures good order 
and the love of the school without any resort to 
the rod. The first declared that whipping was 
necessary in his case to secure good order, and 
truly ; but the necessity resided in him, and not 
in the school. So it often does, — and while 



244 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Daily flogging condemned.— Say nothing about it. 

teachers are zealously defending the rod, they 
should also feel the necessity of improving them- 
selves as the most effectual way to obviate its 
frequent use. 

When authority is once established in a school, 
it is comparatively easy to maintain it. There 
will, of course, be less necessity for resorting to 
the rod after the teacher has obtained the as- 
cendancy, unless it be in the event of taking 
some new pupil into the school, who is disposed 
to be refractory. I have but little respect for the 
teacher who is daily obliged to fortify his au- 
thority by corporal infliction. Something must 
be fundamentally wrong in the teacher whose 
machinery of government, when once well in mo- 
tion, needs to be so often forcibly wound up. 

From what has already been said, it will be 
seen that I do not belong to the number who 
affirm that the rod of correction should never be 
used in schools. Nor am I prepared to advise 
any teacher to publish beforehand that he will 
not punish with the rod. It would always be 
wiser for the teacher to say nothing about it. 
Very little good ever comes of threatening the 
use of it. Threatening of any sort avails but little. 
A teacher may enter a school with the determina- 
tion to govern it, if possible, without force. In- 
deed, I should advise one always to make this 
determination in his own mind. But whenever 
such a determination is published, the probability 
of success is very much diminished. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 245 



There is an arm of power.— Proposed substitutes.— Solitary confinement. 

The true way and the safe way, in my opin- 
ion, is to rely mainly on moral means for the 
government of the school, — to use the rod with- 
out much threatening, if driven to it by the force 
of circumstances, and as soon as authority is 
established, to allow it again to slumber with the 
tacit understanding that it can be again awakened 
from its repose if found necessary. The knowl- 
edge in the school that there is an arm of power, 
may prevent any necessity of an appeal to it ; 
and such a knowledge can do no possible harm 
in itself. But if the teacher has once pledged 
himself to the school that he will never use the 
rod, the necessity may soon come for him to 
abandon his position or lose his influence over the 
pupils. 

As much has been said against the use of the 
rod in any case in school government, it may be 
proper to consider briefly some of the substitutes 
for it, which have been suggested by its opposers. 
■ Some have urged solitary confinement. This 
might do in some cases. Undoubtedly an oppor- 
tunity for reflection is of great use to a vicious 
boy. But then how inadequate are the means 
for this kind of discipline in our schools. Most 
of our school-houses have but one room. In such 
cases, solitary confinement is out of the question. 
In other instances, there may be (as there always 
should be) a room not constantly devoted to the 
purposes of the school. Here a pupil could be con- 
fined ; and I have no objection whatever to this 



246 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Its futility.— Parental folly. 

course, provided the room is not a dark one, and 
its temperature can be comfortable. But even 
with this facility, confinement can not be relied on 
as the only punishment, because if offenses should 
multiply, and the offenders should all be sent to 
the same place, then confinement would soon 
cease to be solitary ! And suppose some philan- 
thropist should devise a plan of a school-house 
with several cells for the accommodation of of- 
fenders ; still this punishment would fail of its 
purpose. The teacher has no power to confine a 
pupil much beyond the limit of school-hours. 
This the obstinate child would understand, and 
he would therefore resolve to hold out till he 
must be dismissed, and then he would be the tri- 
umphant party. He could boast to his fellows 
that he had borne the punishment, and that, 
without submission or promise for the future, 
he had been excused because his time had 
expired. 

This substitute is often urged by parents, who 
have tried it successfully in the case of their own 
children, in their own houses, where it was known 
that it could of course be protracted to any 
necessary length. Besides, if the confinement 
alone was not sufficient, the daily allowance of 
food could be withheld. Under such circum- 
stances, it may be very effectual, as undoubtedly 
it often has been ; but he is a very shallow parent 
who, having tried this experiment upon a single 
child, with all the facilities of a parent, prescribes 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 247 

Expulsion.— Not expedient.— Why ? 

it with the expectation of equal success in the 
government of a large school. 

Others have urged the expulsion of such schol- 
ars as are disobedient. To this it may be replied, 
that it is not quite certain, under existing laws, 
whether the teacher has the right to expel a 
scholar from the common schools ; and some 
deny even the right of the school officers to do it. 
Whether the right exists or not, it is very ques- 
tionable whether it is ever expedient to expel a 
scholar for vicious conduct ; and especially in 
cases where there is physical power to control 
him. The vicious and ignorant scholar is the 
very one who most needs the reforming influence 
of a good education. Sent away from the fount- 
ain of knowledge and virtue at this — the very 
time of need — and what may we expect for him 
but utter ruin? Such a pupil, most of all, needs 
the restraint and the instruction of a teacher 
who is capable of exercising the one and afford- 
ing the other. 

But suppose he is dismissed, is there any rea- 
son to hope that this step will improve the cul- 
prit himself, or better the condition of the school ? 
Will he not go on to establish himself in vice, 
unrestrained by any good influence, and at last 
become a suitable subject for the severity of the 
laws, an inmate of our prisons, and, perhaps, a 
miserable expiator of his own crimes upon the 
gallows? How many youth — and youth worth 
saving, too — have been thus cast out perversely 



248 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Mr. Mann quoted.— " Free trade."— A creed, and its basis. 

to procure their own ruin, at the very time when 
they might have been saved by sufficient energy 
and benevolence, no mortal tongue can tell ! Nor 
is the school itself usually benefited by this 
measure. " For all purposes of evil," Mr. Mann 
justly remarks, " he continues in the midst of 
the very children from among whom he was 
cast out ; and when he associates with them out 
of school, there is no one present to abate or 
neutralize his vicious influences. If the expelled 
pupil be driven from the district where he be- 
longs into another, in order to prevent his con- 
tamination at home, what better can be expected 
of the place to which he is sent, than a recipro- 
cation of the deed, by their sending one of their 
outcasts to supply his place ; and thus opening a 
commerce of evil upon free-trade principles. 
Nothing is gained while the evil purpose re- 
mains in the heart. Reformation is the great 
desideratum ; and can any lover of his country 
hesitate between the alternative of forcible sub- 
jugation and victorious contumacy?" 

From all that has been said,' it will be seen 
that I do not hesitate to teach that corporal inflic- 
tion is one of the justifiable means of establishing 
authority in the school-room. To this conclusion 
I have come, after a careful consideration of the 
subject, modified by the varied experience of 
nearly twenty years, and by a somewhat atten- 
tive observation of the workings of all the plans 
which have been devised to avoid its use or to 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 249 

The Scriptures.— Limitations. — The best thing. 

supply its place. And although I do not under- 
stand the Scriptures, and particularly the writ- 
ings of Solomon, to recommend a too frequent 
and ill-considered use of it, I do not find any 
thing in the letter or spirit of Christianity incon- 
sistent with its proper application. It is the 
abuse, and not the use of the rod, against which 
our better feeling, as well as the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, revolts. It is the abuse of the rod, or 
rather the abuse of children under the infliction 
of the rod, that first called forth the discussion 
referred to, and awakened the general opposition 
to its use. I am free to admit there has been 
an egregious abuse in this matter, and that to 
this day it is unabated in many of our schools. 
I admit, too, that abuse very naturally accom- 
panies the use of the rod, and that very great 
caution is necessary in those who resort to it, 
lest they pervert it. I feel called, upon, there- 
fore, before leaving this subject, to throw out, 
for the consideration of the young Teacher par- 
ticularly, a few hints to regulate the infliction 
of chastisement, under the head of 

SECTION V.— LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

1. The teacher should be thoroughly con- 
vinced that the rod is the best thing for the 
specific case, before he determines to use it. Nor 
should he hastily or capriciously come to this 
conviction. He should carefully and patiently 



250 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Never in anger.— The young Shaker. 

try other means first. He should study the dis- 
position of the offender and learn the tendencies 
of his mind ; and only after careful deliberation, 
should he suffer himself to decide to use this 
mode of punishment. In order that the punish- 
ment should be salutary, the scholar should plainly 
see that the teacher resorts to it from deep prin- 
ciple, from the full belief that under all the cir- 
cumstances it is the best thing that can be done. 
2. The teacher should never be under the ex- 
citement of angry passion when inflicting punish- 
ment. This is of the utmost importance. Most 
of the abuses before spoken of, grow out of a 
violation of this fundamental rule. A teacher 
should never strike for punishment till he is 
perfectly self-possessed, and entirely free from 
the bitterness which, perhaps, tinctured his mind 
when he discovered the offense. It was a wise 
remark of a young Shaker teacher, that "no 
teacher should strike a child till he could hold 
his arm." So long as the child discovers that 
the teacher is under the influence of passion, 
and that his lip trembles with pent-up rage, 
and his blood flows into his face as if driven by 
inward fires of wrath, he looks upon him, not as 
his friend seeking his welfare, but as his enemy 
indulging in persecution. This will call forth the 
evil passions of the child, and while he bears the 
pain, he feels no. real penitence ; and very likely, 
in the midst of his suffering, he resolves to go 
and do the same again, out of mere spite. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 251 

Public opinion.— In presence of the school.— Reasons for it. 

It is, moreover, of great consequence in the 
infliction of a punishment, that the teacher 
should be fully sustained by the public opinion 
of the school. He can never expect this when 
he loses his self-control. If the pupils see that 
he is angry, they almost instinctively sympathize 
with the weaker party, and they associate the 
idea of injustice with the action of the stronger. 
A punishment can scarcely be of any good ten- 
dency, inflicted under such circumstances. 

3. Corporal punishment, as a general rule, 
should be inflicted in presence of the school. I 
have before advised that reproof should be given 
in private, and assigned reasons for it, which 
were, perhaps, satisfactory to the reader. But in 
case of corporal punishment, the offense is of a 
more public and probably of a more serious 
nature. If inflicted in private, it will still be 
known to the school, and therefore the reputa- 
tion of the scholar is not saved. If inflicted in 
the proper spirit by the teacher, and for proper 
cause, it always produces a salutary effect upon 
the school. But a still stronger reason for mak- 
ing the infliction public is, that it puts it beyond 
the power of the pupil to misrepresent the 
teacher, as he is strongly tempted to do if he is 
alone. He may misstate the degree of severity, 
and misrepresent the manner of the teacher; 
and, without witnesses, the teacher is at the 
mercy of his reports. Sometimes, he may ridi- 
cule the punishment to his comrades, and lead 



252 SCHOOL GOYEENMENT. 

Punishment delayed. — Reason for delay. 

them to believe that a private infliction is but a 
small matter; again, he may exaggerate it to his 
parents, and charge the teacher most unjustly 
with unprincipled cruelty. Under these circum- 
stances, I am of the opinion that the safest and 
most effectual way, is to do this work in pres- 
ence of the school. An honest teacher needs not 
fear the light of day ; and if he has the right 
spirit, he needs not fear the effect upon his 
other pupils. It is only the violent, angry pun- 
ishment that needs to be concealed from the 
general eye, and that we have condemned as 
improper at any rate. 

4. Punishment may sometimes be delayed ; and 
always delayed till all anger has subsided in the 
teacher. It is often best for all concerned to 
defer an infliction for a day or more. This gives 
the teacher an opportunity in his cooler moments 
to determine more justly the degree of severity 
to be used. It will also give the culprit time to 
reflect upon the nature of his offense and the 
degree of punishment he deserves. I may say 
that it is generally wise for the teacher, after 
promising a punishment, to take some time to 
consider what it shall be, whether a corporal in- 
fliction or some milder treatment. If, after due 
and careful reflection, he comes conscientiously 
to the conclusion, that bodily pain is the best 
thing, — while he will be better prepared to inflict, 
the pupil, by similar reflection, will be better 
prepared to receive it and profit by it. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 253 

Tho instrument. — Punishment effectual. — Deliberation. 

5. A proper instrument should be used and a 
proper mode of infliction adopted. No heavy and 
hurtful weapon should be employed. A light 
rule for the hand, or a rod for the back or lower 
extremities, may be preferred. Great care should 
be exercised to avoid injuring any of the joints 
in the infliction ; and on no account should a blow 
be given upon the head. 

6. If possible, the punishment should be made 
effectual. A punishment that does not produce 
thorough submission and penitence in the sub- 
ject of it, can hardly be said to answer its main 
design. To be sure, in cases of general insubor- 
dination in the school, I have said that punish- 
ment may be applied to one, having in view the 
deterring of others from similar offenses. But such 
exemplary punishment belongs to extreme cases, 
while disciplinary punishment, which has mainly 
for its object the reformation of. the individual 
upon whom it is inflicted, should be most relied 
on. Taking either view of the case, it should, if 
possible, answer its design, or it would be better 
not to attempt it. The teacher's judgment, there- 
fore, should be very carefully exercised in the 
matter, and all his knowledge of human nature 
should be called into requisition. If, after care- 
ful and conscientious deliberation, he comes to 
the conclusion that the infliction of pain is the 
best thing, and to the belief that he can so in- 
flict it as to show himself to the school and to 
the child, in this act as in all others, a true and 



254 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

Thorough work.—" Little 'whippings." 

kind friend to the child, — then he is justified in 
making the attempt ; and having considerately 
undertaken the case, it should be so thorough as 
not soon to need repetition. 

I would here take the opportunity to censure 
the practice of those teachers who punish every 
little departure from duty with some trifling 
appliance of the rod, which the scholar forgets 
almost as soon as the smarting ceases. Some 
instructors carry about with them a rattan or 
stick, in order to have it ready for appliance 
as soon as they see any departure from their 
commands. The consequence is, they soon come 
to a frequent and inconsiderate use of it, and 
the pupils by habit become familiar with it, and 
of course cease to respect their teacher or to 
dread his punishments. I have seen so much of 
this, that whenever I see a teacher thus "armed 
and equipped,'" I infer at once that his school is 
a disorderly one, an inference almost invariably 
confirmed by a few minutes' observation. My 
earnest advice to all young teachers would be, 
next to the habit of scolding incessantly, avoid 
the habit of resorting to the rod on every slight 
occasion. When that instrument is not demanded 
for some special exigency, some great occasion 
or some high purpose, allow it to slumber in a 
private corner of your desk, not again to be 
called into activity till some moral convulsion 
shall disturb its quiet repose. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 255 

How to discuss this subject.— Experience of very young men. 

I have a single caution to give in regard to 
the discussion of this subject, which in all our 
educational gatherings occupies so much time 
and talent. It is this : — Do not adopt a general 
principle from too few inductions. There is an 
old proverb that declares, " One swallow does not 
make a summer." Young teachers are very prone 
to rely on the experience of a single term. If 
they have kept one term without corporal pun- 
ishment, they are very likely to instruct their 
seniors with their experience; and if they have 
happened to be so situated as to be compelled to 
save themselves by the rod, why then, too, their 
experience forever settles the question. It re- 
quires the experience of more than one, or two, 
or three schools, to enable a man to speak dog- 
matically on this subject ; and I always smile 
when I hear men, and sometimes very young 
men, who have never kept school in their lives, 
perhaps, or at most but a single term, speaking 
as with the voice of authority. Experience is 
indeed one of our safest guides in this as in 
every other matter ; but they who tell their 
experience should at least wait till they have 
that which is worthy to be told. 

There is another point. It is quite fashion- 
able at the present day, whenever this subject is 
to be discussed, to propose the matter in the 
form of a resolution ; as, " Resolved, that no per- 
son is fit to be employed as a teacher, who can 
not govern his scholars by holier means than 



256 SCHOOL GOVEENMENT, 



Resolutions.— A false position.— French, resolution. 

bodily chastisement"; or, "Resolved, that no limit 
should be set to the teacher's right to use the 
'rod of correction,' and that they who denounce 
the teachers for resorting to it are unworthy of 
our confidence in matters of education." Now 
whoever presents the question in this form, 
assumes that he has drawn a line through the 
very core of the truth ; and he undertakes to 
censure all those who are unwilling to square their 
opinions by the line thus drawn. In the discus- 
sion, a man must take one side or the other of the 
question as it is proposed, and consequently he 
may take a false position. The better way would 
be to present the whole subject as matter of free 
remark, and thus leave every one to present his 
own views honestly as they lie in his own mind. 
In this way no one is pledged to this or that 
party, but is left unprejudiced to discover and 
embrace the truth wherever it is found. 

It should moreover be remembered, that re- 
solving by the vote of a meeting in order to 
force public opinion, can never affect the truth. 
A few impious, heaven-daring men in France, 
at one of their revels, once resolved, "There is 
no God 1 " — but did this blasphemous breath efface 
the impress of Deity on all this fair creation of 
his power ? And when they rose from their vile 
debauch, and sought with tottering step to leave 
the scene of madness and to court the dim for- 
getfulness of sleep, — rolled not the shining orbs 
in heaven's high arch above them as much in 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 257 

A more excellent way.— Higher motives first. 



duty to His will, as when they sang together to 
usher in creation's morning ? So it will ever be. 
Men may declare, and resolve as they please ; 
but truth is eternal and unchangeable : and they 
are the wisest men who modestly seek to find 
her as she is, and not as their perverted imag- 
inations would presume to paint her. 

Yet, after all, in the government of schools, 
there is a more excellent way. There are usually 
easier avenues to the heart, than that which is 
found through the integuments of the body. 
Happy is that teacher who is so skillful as to find 
them ; and gladly would I welcome the day when 
the number of such skillful and devoted teachers 
should render any further defense of the rod su- 
perfluous. Although I believe that day has not 
yet arrived, still, in the meantime, I most ear- 
nestly urge all teachers to strive to reach the 
higher motives and the finer feelings of the 
young, and to rely mainly for success, not 
upon appeals to fear and force, but upon the 
power of conscience and the law of reciprocal 
affection. 

As I have placed the higher motives and the 
more desirable means first in order in these re- 
marks on government, so I would always have 
them first, and perseveringly employed by the 
teacher ; and if, by earnestness in his work, by 
unfeigned love for the young, by diligence in the 
study of their natures and the adaptation of 



258 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 



Minimum the maximum.— Three essential points. 



means to ends, which true benevolence is sure to 
suggest, he can govern successfully without cor- 
poral punishment — as in a large proportion of 
cases I believe it can be done — none will rejoice 
more than I at such a desirable result ; — and I 
most cordially subscribe to the principle so hap- 
pily stated by another, that in the government 
of schools, if thorough obedience be but secured 
and order maintained, other things being equal, 
"the minimum of punishment is the maximum of 
excellence." 

The three essential points of school manage- 
ment are organization, government, and instruc- 
tion. The final purpose of a school is the in- 
struction of its pupils ; but to this end the 
school must first be organized ; but that the or- 
ganization may be preserved, there must be some 
system of government, or discipline. The condi- 
tion under which the integrity of an organiza- 
tion can be preserved, is obedience to authority. 
In some way the wills of the governed must fol- 
low the lead of the one will that governs. In 
the last analysis, the direction of human wills 
depends on the deft manipulation of motive. 
Motives are of two sorts ; they are either attract- 
ive or propulsive. There is either something 
ahead of us, inviting us forward ; or there is a 
stimulus behind us, urging us forward. The at- 
tractive motives are the more economical, and 
the ingenuity of the teacher should be taxed to 
discover them and to employ them. But when 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 259 

Motives.— A commendable feature. 

these fail, as they sometimes will, then the pro- 
pulsion, or painful motives, must be employed ; 
the least painful first, but, in the last resort, as 
painful as may be necessary to secure obedience, 
while the pupil is allowed to retain his member- 
ship in the school. When the limit of painful 
stimulation has been reached, membership must 
cease, through suspension or expulsion. This 
limit is determined by public opinion or by 
law. 

The classification or gradation of motives may 
be exhibited as follows : 



{1. Ix>ve of order and right. 
2. Regard for the one who governs. 
3. Self-interest. 



MOTIVES. 



2. Propulsive. 



4. Admonition. 

5. Rebuke. 

6. Loss of privilege. 

7. Fear of punishment. 



A characteristic and very commendable feat- 
ure of modern school discipline, is the large use 
that is made of the attractive motives ; but with 
this better practice, there is sometimes joined the 
false assumption that this mode of government 
is adequate for all cases. In actual practice it 
often fails, and then there are but two courses to 
pursue ; either the disobedient pupil must lose 
his membership in the school, or some form of 
painful stimulation must be employed. For the 
teacher, expulsion would doubtless be the pref- 
erable alternative ; but, in most cases, public 



260 SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

A disputed question.— Manner of censure. 

opinion will not justify expulsion save as a last 
resort. 

It is a disputed question in the theory of the 
school, whether the exemplary or the remedial 
element in punishment should be kept uppermost 
in the thought of the disciplinarian. If we con- 
ceive that the organization is superior to the 
units that may chance to compose it, and that 
the units are to be affected mainly through the 
working of the organization, then the exemplary 
element in punishment becomes prominent, and 
a pupil may suffer chastisement, even when it is 
probable that his amendment may not be directly 
promoted by it. On the other hand, the remedial 
element in punishment assumes the first place 
when the individual, rather than the organi- 
zation, holds the first place in thought. In the 
State, the exemplary character of punishment 
is primary and almost supreme, while in the 
family, the remedial character is chief ; and 
as the school mediates between the State and 
the family, the two elements stand nearly in 
equipoise. 

In the employment of censure, it should be 
noted that there is a vast difference between such 
charges as "You have told a falsehood," and "You 
are a liar." The first is an impeachment of con- 
duct ; the second, of character. In extreme cases, 
it may sometimes be justifiable to make censure 
general ; but in all ordinary cases it ought to be 
specific. Thus Richter says: "What is to be fol- 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 261 



A rule of prudence. 



lowed as a rule of prudence, yea, of justice, toward 
grown-up people, should be much more observed 
toward children ; namely, that one should never 
judgingly declare, for instance, ' You are a liar,' 
or even, 'You are a bad boy,' instead of saying, 
'You have told an untruth,' or 'You have done 
wrong.'" (Levana, p. 114.) 



CHAPTER XI. 

SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

EVERY teacher, before opening a school, 
should have some general plan in his 
mind, of what he intends to accomplish. In 
every enterprise there is great advantage to be 
derived from forethought, — and perhaps nowhere 
is the advantage greater than in the business of 
teaching. The day of opening a school is an 
eventful day to the young teacher. A thousand 
things crowd upon him at the same time, and 
each demands a prompt and judicious action on 
his part. The children to the number of half a 
hundred, all turn their inquiring eyes to him for 
occupation and direction. They have come full 
of interest in the prospects of the new school, 
ready to engage cheerfully in whatever plans the 
teacher may have to propose ; and, I was about 
to say, just as ready to arrange and carry into 
effect their own plans of disorder and misrule, if 
they, unhappily for him and for themselves, find 
he has no system to introduce. 

What a critical — what an eventful moment is 
this first day of the term to all concerned ! The 
teacher's success and usefulness, — nay, his repu- 
tation as an efficient instructor, — now "hang upon 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 263 

Angelic solicitude. — Low qualifications. 

the decision of an hour." An hour, too, may 
almost foretell whether the precious season of 
childhood and youth now before these immortals, 
is to be a season of profit and healthful culture 
under a judicious hand, or a season of wasted — 
perhaps worse than wasted — existence, under the 
imbecility or misguidance of one who " knows not 
what he does or what he deals with." 

If angels ever visit our earth and hover un- 
seen around the gatherings of mortals, to survey 
their actions and contemplate their destiny as 
affected by human instrumentality, it seems to 
me there can be no spectacle so calculated to 
awaken their interest and enkindle their sym- 
pathy as when they see the young gathering to- 
gether from their scattered homes in some rural 
district, to receive an impress, for weal or woe, 
from the hand of him who has undertaken to 
guide them. And, supposing them to have the 
power to appreciate to the full extent the conse- 
quences of human agency, how must they be 
touched with emotions of joy and gratitude, or 
shudder with those of horror and dread, as they 
witness the alternations of wisdom and folly, 
seriousness and indifference, sincerity and du- 
plicity, purity and defilement, exhibited by him 
who has assumed to be at once the director and 
exemplar in the formation of human character, 
at such an important period. How deplorable is 
the thought that all the fond hopes of the parents, 
all the worthy aspirings of the children, and all 



264 SCHOOL AERANGEMEFTS. 

The first day.— A suggestion.— Its advantages. 

the thrilling interests of higher beings, are so 
often to be answered by qualifications so scanty, 
and by a spirit so indifferent in the teacher of 
the young. How sad the thought that up to this 
very moment, so pregnant with consequences to 
all concerned, there has been too often so little 
of preparation for the responsibility. 

I fain would impress the young teacher with 
the importance of having a plan for even the 
first day of the school. It will raise him sur- 
prisingly in the estimation of the pupils and also 
of the parents, if he can make an expeditious 
and efficient beginning of the school. While the 
dull teacher is slowly devising the plans he will 
by and by present for the employment and im- 
provement of his school, the children taking 
advantage of their own exemption from labor, 
very promptly introduce their own plans for 
amusing themselves or for annoying him ; — 
whereas, if he could but have his own plans 
already made, and could promptly and efficiently 
carry them into execution, he would forestall 
their mischievous designs and make co-operators 
out of his opposers. 

In order to be sure of a successful commence- 
ment, I would recommend that the teacher 
should go into the district a few days before the 
school is to begin. By careful inquiry of the 
trustees or the school committee, he can ascer- 
tain what is the character of the district and the 
wants of the school. This will afford him con- 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 265 

Important inquiries.— Caution against meanness. 

siderable aid. But he should do more than this. 
He would do well to call on several of the fami- 
lies of the district, whose children are to become 
members of his school. This he can do without 
any ceremony, simply saying to them that, as 
he has been appointed their teacher, he is desirous 
as far as he may to ascertain their wants, in 
order to be as prompt as possible in the organ- 
ization of his school. He will of course see 
the children themselves. From them he can 
learn what was the organization of his school 
under his predecessor ; how many studied geog- 
raphy, how many arithmetic, grammar, etc. ; and 
he can also learn whether the former organiza- 
tion was satisfactory to the district or not. The 
modes of government and the methods of inter- 
esting the pupils practiced by the former teacher, 
would be likely to be detailed to him ; and from 
the manner of both parents and children, he 
could judge whether similar methods would still 
be desirable in the district. By calling on several 
of the largest families in this way, he would 
learn beforehand very accurately the state of the 
school and the state of the district. 

I will take this occasion to insist that the 
teacher in these visits, should heartily discourage 
any forwardness, so common among children, to 
disparage a former teacher. It should be his 
sole object to gain useful information. He should 
give no signs of pleasure in listening to any 
unfavorable statements as to his predecessor ; 



266 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Making personal friends. — A common error. 

and I may add that during the progress of the 
school, he should ever frown upon any attempt 
on the part of the pupils to make comparisons 
derogatory to a former teacher. This is a prac- 
tice altogether too prevalent in our schools ; and 
I am sorry to say there are still too many teach- 
ers who are mean enough to countenance it. 
Such a course is unfair, because the absent party 
may be grossly misrepresented ; it is dangerous, 
because it tends to cultivate a spirit of detrac- 
tion in the young ; and it is mean, because the 
party is absent and has no opportunity of defend- 
ing himself. 

Another important advantage of the visits 
proposed would be, that he would make the 
acquaintance of many of the children beforehand, 
and very likely, too, if he should go in the right 
spirit and with agreeable manners, he would 
make a favorable impression upon them, and 
thus he would have personal friends on his side 
to begin with. The parents, too, would see that 
he took an interest in his employment ; that he 
had come among them in the spirit of his voca- 
tion — in the spirit of earnestness, and they would 
become interested in his success, — a point of no 
small importance. 

I might here caution the teacher against a 
very common error. He should not confine his 
visits to the more wealthy and influential families. 
The poor and the humble should receive his 
attentions as soon as the rich. From the latter 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 267 

Mr. Abbot.— Early at the school.— Why? 

class very likely a large portion of his school 
will come ; and it is wrong in principle as well 
as policy to neglect those who have not been as 
successful as others in the one item of accumu- 
lating property. 

On the day of opening the school, he should 
be early at the school-house. Mr. Abbot, in his 
Teacher, has some valuable suggestions on this 
point. " It is desirable," he says, " that the young 
teacher should meet his scholars at first in an 
unofficial capacity. For this purpose, he should 
repair to the school-room, on the first day, at an 
early hour, so as to see and become acquainted 
with the scholars as they come in, one by one. 
He may take an interest with them in all the 
little arrangements connected with the opening 
of the school. The building of the fire, the paths 
through the snow, the arrangement of seats, 
calling upon them for information or aid, asking 
their names, and, in a word, entering fully and 
freely into conversation with them, just as a 
parent, under similar circumstances, would do 
with his children. All the children thus addressed 
will be pleased with the gentleness and affability 
of the teacher. Even a rough and ill-natured 
boy, who has perhaps come to the school with 
the express determination of attempting to make 
mischief, will be completely disarmed by being 
asked pleasantly to help the teacher fix the fire, 
or alter the position of a desk. Thus by means 
of the half hour during which the scholars are 



268 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

It should be habitual.— Roguery promoted. 

coming together, the teacher will find, when he 
calls upon the children to take their seats, that 
he has made a large number of them his per- 
sonal friends. Many of these will have com- 
municated their first impressions to others, so 
that he will find himself possessed, at the out- 
set, of that which is of vital consequence in 
opening any administration — a strong party in 
his favor." 

It will be well for the teacher, for several 
days, both in the morning and afternoon, to be 
early at the school-room. He can thus continue 
his friendly intercourse with the pupils, and ef- 
fectually prevent any concerted action among 
them, at that hour, to embarrass his government. 
Many a school has been seriously injured, if not 
broken up, by the scholars being allowed to 
assemble early at the school, with nothing to 
occupy them and no one to restrain them. Hav- 
ing so convenient an opportunity for mischief, 
their youthful activity will be very likely to find 
egress in an evil direction. Many a tale of 
roguery could be told, founded upon the incidents 
of the school-room before school-hours, if those 
who have good memories would but reveal their 
own experience ;— roguery that never would have 
occurred had the teacher adopted the course 
here suggested. 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 269 



A day's work.— "What shall I do?"— "Yes, m'm."— Veto. 
SECTION I.— PLAN OF THE DAY'S WORK. 

It will be remembered by many of the readers 
of this volume, that in former times numerous 
teachers were accustomed to work without a plan, 
attempting to do their work just as it happened 
to demand attention, but never taking the pre- 
caution to have this demand under their own 
control. If one scholar or class was not ready to 
recite, another would be called ; and there being 
no particular time for the various exercises, the 
school would become a scene of mere listless- 
ness, and the teacher would hardly know how to 
find employment for himself in the school. 

I shall make this point clearer by an example. 
Having occasion, in an official capacity, to visit 
a school which had been kept by a young teacher 
some two weeks, she very naturally asked — 
"What shall I do first, this afternoon?" 

" Do precisely as you would if I had not come 
in," was the reply. 

She looked a little perplexed. At length she 
doubtingly asked, — "Is the geography lesson 
ready?" 

"Yes, m'm" — "No, m'm" — "Yes, m'm," — was 
the ambiguous reply from the class. There was 
so much of veto in the looks of the young geog- 
raphers that it amounted to prohibition. 

" Well, are the scholars in Colburn's arithmetic 
ready ? " 

This was said with more of hope ; but the 



270 SCHOOL AERANGEMENTS. 

A hard time.— A hint given. 

same equivocal answer was vociferated from all 
parts of the room. The teacher, placing her 
finger upon her lip, looked despairingly ; but, 
recollecting one more resort, she said, — "Is the 
grammar class ready?" 

Again came the changes on " Yes, m'm " and 
"No, m'm." 

The teacher gave up, and asked what she 
should do. She was again told to go on as usual 
for that afternoon. It was a tedious afternoon 
to her, as it was to her visitor. She at length 
called one of the classes, unprepared as many of 
them said they were, and the exercise showed 
that none but those who said "Yes, m'm," were 
mistaken. The whole afternoon seemed to be 
one of pain and mortification to all concerned ; 
and I fancied I could almost read in the knitted 
brow of the teacher a declaration that that should 
be her last school. 

At the close of the afternoon, a single hint 
was suggested to her, — viz., that she should make 
out a list of her scholars' duties, and the times 
when they would be expected to recite their sev- 
eral lessons. She was told that it would be well 
to explain this plan of her day's work to her 
school in the morning, and then never again ask 
whether a class was ready. The hint was taken ; 
and on subsequent visitations the several classes 
were ever ready to respond to the call of their 
instructor. 

Now this matter is no unimportant one to the 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 271 

Improvement.— A case supposed. — Classillcation. 

teacher. Indeed, I judge of a teacher's ability 
very much by the wisdom and tact with which 
he apportions his time for his own duties, and 
divides the time of his scholars between their 
studies and recitations. 

In order to aid the young teacher in forming 
a plan for himself, I subjoin a scheme of a day's 
duties adapted to a school of the simplest grade. 
Suppose a school to consist of thirty scholars, and 
that the teacher finds, by inquiry and by exam- 
ination, that there may be four grand divisions ; 
the first, which he designates [A,] may unite in 
pursuing Reading, Grammar, Mental Arithmetic, 
Written Arithmetic, and Writing. The second, 
[B,] can pursue Reading, Spelling, Writing, Geog- 
raphy, Mental and Written Arithmetic. The 
third, [C,] attend to Reading, Spelling, Mental 
Arithmetic, Writing, and Geography. The fourth, 
[D,] consisting of the small pupils, attend to 
Reading, Spelling, Tables, and sundry slate exer- 
cises. 

Now, it is very desirable that as much time 
should be devoted to recitation as can be afforded 
to each class. It may be seen at once, that in 
certain studies, as geography, mental arithmetic, 
and spelling — the teacher can as well attend to 
fifteen at once as to seven. In these studies, 
unless the disparity in age and attainment is 
very great, two divisions can very properly be 
united. All can be taught writing at once, thus 
receiving the teacher's undivided attention for the 



272 SCHOOL AEEANGEMENTS. 

Preliminary considerations.— A scheme. 

time. Besides, it is necessary to reserve some 
little time for change of exercises, and also for 
the interruptions which must necessarily occur. 
The recesses are to he provided for, and some 
time may be needed for investigation of viola- 
tions of duty, and for the punishment of of- 
fenders. All this variety of work will occur in 
every school, even the smallest. Now, if the 
teacher does not arrange this in accordance with 
some plan, he will be very much perplexed, even 
in a small school ; and how much more in a 
large one I He will do well to consider very 
carefully the relative importance of each exercise 
to be attended to, and then to write out his 
sclieme somewhat after the following model. It 
must not be forgotten that studying is also to 
be provided for, and that it is just as important 
that the pupils should be regular in this as in 
recitation. Indeed, without such regularity, he 
can not expect acceptable recitations. 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 



273 



PROGRAM. 

For the above supposed circumstances. 



Time. 


M. 


Kecitationa, etc. 


Sttidies. 


9 to 9.15 


15 


Reading Script , & Prater. 




9.15 to 9.40 


25 


D. Reading, Spelling, or Tables. 


A. Reading ; B. Arith. ; 
C. Geography. 


9.40 to 9.42 


2 


Rest, Change of Classes, etc. 




9.42 to 10 


18 


A. Reading. 


(B. Arith.; C. Geog. ; 
j D. Slates. 


10 to 10.5 


5 


j Rest, Singing, or Answer- 
| ing Questions. 




10.5 to 10.25 


20 


B. Arithmetic. 


j A. Gram.; C. Geog.; 
j D. Books or Cards. 


10.25 to 10.28 


3 


Rest, etc. 




10.28 to 10.48 


20 


B. & C. Geography. 


A. Gram.; D. Recess. 


10.48 to 11 


12 


Recess. 




11 to 11.15 
11.15 to 11.35 
11.35 to 11.50 


15 
20 
15 


D. Reading, etc. 

A. Grammar. 

B. & C. Spelling. 


1 A. Gram.; B. M. Arith.; 
( C. Spelling. 

(B. Spelling- C. Spcll- 
| ing ; D. Slates. 
j A. M. Arith. ; D. Books 
j or Cards 


11.50 to 12 


10 


General Exercise. 








Intermission. 




2 to 2.15 

2.15 to 2.45 
2.45 to 3.10 

3.10 to 3.30 


15 

30 
25 

20 


D. Reading, Spelling, Tables. 

A. B. & C. Writing. 

A. & B. Mental Arithmetic. 

C. Reading. 


j A. Arith. ; B. Reading ; 
| C. Reading. 

D. Slates. 

C. M. Arith. ; D. Recess. 
(A. Arith.; B. Arith.; 
j D. Books, etc. 


3.30 to 3.40 


10 


Recess. 




3.40 to 4 


20 


B. Reading. 


j A. Arith.; C. M. Arith.; 
( D. Drawing. 


4 to 4.5 


5 


Rest, or Singing. 




4.5 to 4.25 
4.25 to 4.55 


20 
30 


C. Mental Arithmetic. 
A. Arithmetic. 


( A. Read. ; B. Arith. or 
1 Draw.; D. Slates. 
J B. Arith. or Draw.; C. 
) Draw.; D. Dismissed. 


4.55 to 5 


5 


Gen. Exer. and Dismission. 





274 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

A clock.— Study provided for.— Drawing. 

REMARKS. 

In the foregoing Program, the first column 
shows the division of time, and the portion 
allowed to each exercise. I need not say the 
teacher should be strictly punctual. To this end 
a clock is a very desirable article in the school. 
Both teacher and pupils would be benefited by 
it. The second column shows the recitations, ad- 
mitting, perhaps, some variety, especially in case 
of the younger children ; while the third shows 
the occupation of those classes which are not 
engaged in recitation. 

It will be seen that the classes are studying 
those lessons which -they are soon to recite ; and, 
as in this case it is supposed that all the lessons 
will be learned in school, each one has been pro- 
vided for. It would be well, however, in practice 
to require one of the studies to be learned out of 
school, in which case no time should be allowed 
to the study of that branch in the program. 

It will be perceived that drawing is placed as 
the occupation of the younger classes near the 
close of the afternoon. This is based upon 
the supposition that the teacher, during recess, 
has placed an example on the blackboard, to be 
copied by the children upon their slates. This is 
perhaps the most effectual way to teach drawing 
to children. Those more advanced, however, may 
use paper and pencil, and draw from an engraved 
copy, or from a more finished specimen furnished 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 275 

An assistant.— A large school.— Alternation.— Thorough work. 

from the teacher's portfolio. It is essential that 
the teacher should, if possible, give some speci- 
mens of his own in this branch. I have seldom 
known a teacher to excite an interest in draw- 
ing, who relied altogether upon engravings as 
models for imitation. 

It should be remarked further, concerning 
such a program, that in case of an assistant 
in school, two columns under the head of Reci- 
tations should be formed — one for the principal's 
classes, and one for the assistant's. If there are 
a few talented scholars, who are able to do more 
than their class, they can be allowed to join some 
of the classes out of their division, or they may 
be provided with an extra study, which will not 
need daily recitation. 

In case the school is much larger than the 
one supposed above, and the classes necessarily so 
numerous as to make the time allowed to each 
study very short, then the principle of alterna- 
tion may be introduced ; that is, some studies 
may be recited Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri- 
days, — and some other studies, with other classes, 
take their places on the alternate days. It is de- 
cidedly better for the teacher to meet a class, in 
arithmetic, for instance, especially of older pu- 
pils, but twice or three times a week, having 
time enough at each meeting to make thorough 
work, than to meet them daily, but for a time 
so short as to accomplish but little. The same 
remark may be applied to reading, and, indeed, 



276 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Nibbling.— Difficulty of classifying.— Way to correct a scheme. 

almost any other branch. The idea is a mischiev- 
ous one, that every class in reading, or in any 
other branch, must be called out four times a 
day, or even twice a day, — except in the case of 
very young children. It may be compared to nib- 
bling at a cracker as many times a day, without 
once taking a hearty meal, — a process which 
would emaciate any child in the course of three 
months. These scanty nibblings at the table of 
knowledge, so often and so tenaciously practiced, 
may perhaps account for the mental emaciation 
so often discoverable in many of our schools. 

The difficulty of classifying and arranging the 
exercises of a school, becomes greater as the num- 
ber of teachers to be employed increases ; and 
there is much greater inconvenience in allowing 
any pupils to study out of their own division, 
when the number of teachers is more than one or 
two. Few are aware of the difficulty of arranging 
the exercises of a large school, but those who 
have experienced it. It can he done, however ; 
and it should always be done as soon as possible 
after commencing the school. 

If at any time the arrangement, when made, is 
not found to be perfect, it is not wise to change it 
at once. Let it go on a few days, and watch its 
defects with great care ; and in the meantime 
study, out of school, to devise a better. When 
this has been accomplished, and committed to 
paper, and perfectly comprehended by the teacher, 
it may be posted up in the school-room, and the 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 277 

Models not to be copied.— Teacher must think. 

day announced when it will go into operation. It 
will soon be understood by the pupils, and the 
change can thus be made without the loss of 
time. 

Times for reviews of the various lessons could 
be found by setting aside the regular lessons for 
some particular day, once a week, or once in two 
weeks ; and for composition, declamation, etc., a 
half day should be occasionally or periodically 
assigned. 

If I have devoted considerable space to this 
subject, it is because I deem it of very great im- 
portance to the teacher's success. With one other 
remark I dismiss it. These models are not given 
to be servilely copied. They are given to illus- 
trate the great principle. The circumstances of 
schools will be found to vary so widely, that no 
model, however perfect in itself, would answer 
for all. The teacher must exercise his own inge- 
nuity and judgment to meet his own wants ; and 
in general it may be remarked that where a 
teacher has not the skill to adapt his own plans 
to his own circumstances, he can hardly be ex- 
pected to succeed in carrying out the plans of 
another. 

The following general rules may serve a good 
purpose in constructing a teacher's time-table : 

1. The recitations of the youngest pupils should 
be short and frequent. As the power of continu- 
ous attention, in the case of such pupils, is weak, 
the maximum time of recitation should not ex- 



278 SCHOOL AREANGEMENTS. 

Exercises for morning.— Alternations.— Few classes. 

ceed fifteen minutes ; and as they can be in- 
structed only during the class exercise, not yet 
having learned the use of books, they should be 
called up as frequently as the teacher's time will 
permit. 

2. The exercises that require the greatest stress 
of mental effort should come in the earlier part 
of the day. The working power of the mind is 
at its best from nine till twelve ; and so a subject 
like arithmetic should come by preference in the 
forenoon, while penmanship, drawing, reading, 
etc., might come later in the day. 

3. Provide alternations that afford rest or an 
agreeable change. To pass from an exercise in 
reasoning to another where memory is chiefly 
involved, is an agreeable change, for a new mode 
of mental activity is called into play, while the 
one just employed has a period of rest. 

4. Have as few classes as possible. The reason 
for this rule is obvious, but it is often disregarded. 
Oases are on record where the teacher of a coun- 
try school has had upward of forty classes during 
the day. One such teacher, in explanation of the 
apparent impossibility of attending to so many 
classes, said that he sometimes heard three at a 
time ! • By securing a uniformity of books, by 
conducting some recitations by topic, by uniting 
two classes in the same study, and by reducing 
the number of recitations in some subjects to 
two or three per week, it is quite possible to re- 
lieve an over-charged time-table. 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 279 

Pupils without system.— Disorder. 

SECTION II.— INTERRUPTIONS. 

In every school consisting of pupils of different 
ages and circumstances, there will be more or less 
of interruption to the general order and employ- 
ment of the school. Some of the pupils have 
never been trained to system at ■ home ; perhaps 
most of them have been positively taught to dis- 
regard it at school. At any rate, "it must needs 
be," in this particular, "that offenses come." Nor 
should the teacher lose his patience though he 
should be often disturbed by the thoughtlessness 
of his pupils. He should expect it as a matter 
of course, and exercise his ingenuity as far as 
possible to prevent it. It may well be one of his 
sources of enjoyment to witness an improvement 
in the habits of his pupils in regard to system. 

These interruptions proceed from various 
causes, — such as soliciting leave to speak, or to 
go out ; asking for some assistance in learning 
lessons, or for leave to drink, or to stand by the 
fire ; requesting the teacher to mend pens or to 
set copies ; disorderly conduct in pupils, making 
it necessary, in his judgment, to administer re- 
proof or punishment in the midst of other 
duties, — and sometimes the vociferous and im- 
patient making of complaints by one scholar 
against another. 

How many times I have seen a teacher in- 
volved in indescribable perplexity, while trying 
to perform the duty of instruction, and to "get 



280 SCHOOL AEEANGEMENTS. 

Scene from nature.— Business accumulates.— A crisis.— A pail of water. 

through " in time. While hearing a grammar 
lesson, a scholar brings up his atlas to have some 
place pointed out which he had upon one trial 
failed to find. The teacher, turning to look for 
the place, is addressed with "Please mend my 
pen," from another quarter. Having the knife in 
hand, as if such things were to be expected, the 
obliging teacher takes the pen, and, holding it 
between his eyes and the atlas, endeavors to 
shape its nib and to discover the city at the same 
glance. " Jane keeps a pinching me," — vociferates 
a little girl who is seated behind the class. 
" Jane, Jane," says the teacher, turning away 
from both the nib and the city, "Jane, come to 
me instantly." Jane, with the guilty fingers 
thrust far into her mouth, makes her way side- 
ling toward the teacher. "May I go out?" — 
says John, who is thinking only of his own con- 
venience. "No, no," answers the teacher, a little 
pettishly, as if conscious that in a crisis like this, 
a request simply to breathe more freely is 
scarcely justifiable. "Please, sir, let me and 
Charles *go out and get a pail of water ? " This 
is said by a little shrewd-looking, round-faced, 
light-haired boy, who has learned how to select 
his time, and to place the emphasis upon the 
"please, sir." The teacher, by this time being 
considerably fretted by such an accumulation of 
business on his hands, very naturally thinks of 
the refreshment contained in a pail of cool water, 
and very good-naturedly answers the little urchin 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 281 

A juncture and a conjunction I— A truce.— Sunshine again. 

in the affirmative, who most likely is, by this 
time, more than half way out of the door, so 
confident is he of success. Just at this juncture, 
a considerate-looking miss in the class earnestly 
appeals to the teacher, to know if the word next 
but three to the last, was not a common noun, 
though called a conjunction ! This reminds the 
teacher that several words have been parsed 
without his notice, and he asks the class to 
"stop there." Glancing at his watch, he dis- 
covers that he has gone three minutes beyond 
the time for recess, and he relieves himself by 
saying, "boys may go out." This grants a truce 
to all parties. The pen goes back unmended ; 
the atlas with its sought city undiscovered ; John 
"goes out" now by common law, taking to him- 
self the credit of this happy release, as he asked 
only to remind the master that it was time for 
recess ; Jane takes both thumb and finger from 
her precious little mouth, and smiling, seats her- 
self by the side of her late challenger, who is by 
this time more than half repentant of her own 
impatience ; the shrewd-looking urchin and his 
companion return with the refreshing pail of 
water, — the boys and girls gather round to obtain 
the first draught, while the little chubby-faced 
lad comes forward, clothed in smiles, with a cup 
filled with the cooling liquid on purpose for the 
master ; the boon is accepted, the perplexed brow 
becomes placid, and all is sunshine again. — This 
is not a very extravagant picture of the inter- 



282 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Lancaster's motto.— System. 

ruptions in a district school. Those who have 
been brought up in such a school will recognize 
the fidelity of the likeness, as it has been drawn 
from nature. 

Now, whoever has any knowledge of human 
nature, and of school teaching, will at once see 
that this is all wrong. It is a law of our being, 
that we can do well but one thing at a time. 
He who attempts more, must do what he attempts 
but very imperfectly. There was a great deal of 
wisdom embodied in that motto which used to 
lie placed in the old Lancasterian schools : " A 

TIME FOR EVERY THING, AND EVERY THING IN ITS 

time." It should be one of the mottoes of every 
teacher. In the construction of the plan or 
program for the day's duties, great care should 
be taken to provide for all these little things. 
If whispering is to be allowed at all in school, 
let it come into one of the intervals between 
recitations. If assistance in getting lessons is to 
be asked and rendered, let it be done at a time 
assigned for the special purpose. As far as pos- 
sible, except in extreme cases, let the discipline 
be attended to at the time of general exercise, 
or some other period assigned to it, so that there 
shall not be a ludicrous mixture of punishments 
and instruction during the progress of a class 
exercise. 

It is pleasant to visit a school, where every 
thing is done, and well done, at its proper time. 
Teaching under such circumstances, becomes a 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 283 

Reverse.— Recesses.— How often ? 

delightful employment. But where all is confu- 
sion, and the teacher allows himself, by the accu- 
mulation of irregularities, to be oppressed and 
perplexed, it is one of the most wearing and un- 
desirable vocations on earth. The teacher goes 
to his lodgings harassed with care, oppressed with 
a consciousness of the imperfection of his labors, 
and exhausted by the unnatural and unwarrant- 
able tax imposed upon his mental faculties. He 
groans under the burden incident to his calling, 
and longs to escape from it, never once dream- 
ing, perhaps, that he has the power of relieving 
himself by the introduction of system, and thus 
changing his former babel into a scene of quiet- 
ness and order. 



SECTION III. -RECESSES. 

In speaking of the arrangements of a school, 
the subject of recesses demands attention. It is 
the belief of many enlightened instructors, that 
the confinement in most of our schools is still 
too protracted, and that more time devoted to 
relaxation would be profitable, both to the phys- 
ical and the mental constitution of our youth. 
Some have urged a recess of a few minutes every 
hour, in order to afford opportunity for a change 
of position and a change of air. This could better 
be done in schools composed only of one sex, or 
where the accommodation of separate yards and 
playgrounds permits both sexes to take a recess 



284 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

One each session.— Ten minutes to each. sex. — Separate playgrounds. 

at the same time. Where these accommodations 
are wanting, and one sex must wait while the 
other is out, the time required for two recesses, 
in half a day, for the whole school, could scarcely 
be afforded. I am of the opinion, as our schools 
are at present composed, that one recess in the 
half day for each sex is all that can be allowed. 
The question then is, how can that one recess be 
made most conducive to the purposes for which 
it is designed? 

1. As to its duration. Ten minutes is the 
least time that should be thought of, if the chil- 
dren are to be kept closely confined to study 
during the remainder of the three hours' session ; 
that is, ten minutes for each sex. It would be a 
very desirable thing if our school-houses could be 
so furnished with separate playgrounds and sep- 
arate out-door accommodations, that both sexes 
could take recess at the same time. This would 
save much time to the district in the course of 
a term, and it would also give opportunity for 
thoroughly ventilating the room during recess, 
while it would afford the teacher opportunity to 
take the air, and overlook the sports of the chil- 
dren to some extent, — a matter of no small im- 
portance. 

Where these facilities are wanting, and the 
teacher must remain within to preside over the 
one half of the school while the others are out, 
he may still give at least ten minutes to each 
sex, contriving to employ the time profitably 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 285 

Teacher's work at recess.— Proper hour. 

within doors. He may reserve th^s time for set- 
tling such difficulties as may have arisen in the 
school ; he may administer reproofs, inflict his 
punishments if any are necessary, or he may 
spend the time in giving assistance to the pupils 
or in drawing upon the blackboard for the ad- 
vantage of the younger pupils as they come in. 
In a large school, where a longer recess is the 
more necessary on account of the bad air of the 
school-room, he will find the more duty to be 
done at this time ; so that in any event the time 
need not be lost, even if fifteen minutes be al- 
lowed to each sex. 

2. As to the proper hour for recess. It was 
an old rule to have recess when " school was half 
done^ Indeed, this expression was often used as 
synonymous with recess in many districts twenty- 
five years ago. It is now generally thought better 
to have the recess occur later, perhaps when the 
school session is two thirds past. It is found that 
children, accustomed to exercise all the morning, 
can better bear the confinement of the first two 
hours than they can that of the third, even 
though the recess immediately precedes the third. 
In a school the half-daily sessions of which are 
three hours, I should recommend that the recess 
be introduced so as to terminate at the close of 
the second hour. As far as possible, it would be 
well to have all the pupils leave the room at the 
time recess is given them ; and, as a general 
thing, they should not ask leave to go out at any 



286 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Young children.— Teachers fail in assigning lessons.— Not too long. 

other time. A little system in this matter is 
as desirable as in any other, and it is quite as 
feasible. 

In a school composed partly of very young 
children, there is no difficulty in giving such 
children two recesses each half day. Nor is there 
any objection to such a course. It is more irk- 
some to young children to bear confinement than 
to the adult ; especially as they can not be ex- 
pected to be constantly occupied. It will relieve 
the teacher very much to have the children go 
out of the room as soon as they become fatigued ; 
and, as it will promote their own health and hap- 
piness to go, it is very justifiable to grant them 
the privilege. This may properly and easily be 
provided for upon the Program. 



SECTION IV.— ASSIGNING LESSONS. 

Many teachers fail in this department. Judg- 
ing of the difficulty of the lesson by the ease 
with which they can acquire it, even in a text- 
book new to themselves, they not unfrequently 
assign more than can possibly be learned by the 
children. They forget that by long discipline of 
mind, and by the aid of much previously ac- 
quired knowledge, the lesson becomes compara- 
tively easy to them ; they forget, too, the toil a 
similar lesson cost them when they were chil- 
dren. Now the effect of learning a lesson poorly 
is most ruinous to the mind of a child. He, by 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 287 

Why?— Not how much, but how well.— Good habits of study. 

the habit of missing comes to think it a small 
thing to fail at recitation. He loses his self- 
respect. He loses all regard for his reputation as 
a scholar. It is truly deplorable to see a child 
fail in a lesson with indifference. Besides, the 
attempt to acquire an unreasonable lesson induces 
a superficial habit of study, — a skimming over the 
surface of things. The child studies that he may 
live through the recitation ; not that he may 
learn and remember. He passes thus through a 
book, and thinks himself wise while he is yet a 
fool, — a mistake that is no less common than 
fatal. 

The motto of the wise teacher should be, " Not 
now much, but how well." He should always 
ask, is it possible that a child can master this 
lesson, and probable that he will ? It is better 
that a class should make but very slow progress 
for several weeks, if they but acquire the habit 
of careful study, and a pride of good scholarship, 
— a dread of failure, — than that they should ram- 
ble over a whole field, firing at random, missing 
oftener than they hit the mark, and acquiring a 
stupid indifference to their reputation as marks- 
men, and a prodigal disregard to their waste of 
ammunition and their loss of the game. 

In assigning lessons, the importance of good 
habits of study should be considered, and the les- 
sons given accordingly. At the commencement 
of a term the lessons should always be short, till 
the ability of the pupils is well understood, and 



288 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

A failure is a fault.— Reviews.— Frequent.— Why? 

their habits as good students established. As the 
term progresses, they can be gradually lengthened 
as the capacity of the class will warrant, or their 
own desire will demand. It is frequently judi- 
cious to consult the class about the length of the 
lessons, though, to be sure, their judgment can 
not always be relied on, for "they are almost 
always ready to undertake more than they can 
perform well. Assigning, however, somewhat less 
than they propose, will take from them all excuse 
for failure. When the lesson is given, a failure 
should be looked upon as a culpable dereliction 
of duty, as incompatible with a good conscience 
as it is with good scholarship. This high ground 
can not be taken, however, unless the teacher 
has been very judicious in the assignment of the 
lesson. 



SECTION V.— REVIEWS. 

In the prosecution of study by any class of 
students, frequent reviews are necessary. This is 
so because the memory is very much aided by 
repetition and by association. But, further, the 
understanding is often very much improved by a 
review. Many of the sciences can not be pre- 
sented in independent parts, nor can all the terms 
employed be fully appreciated till these parts are 
again viewed as a whole. Many things which 
were but dimly seen the first time they were 
passed over, become perfectly clear to the mind 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 289 

Application of principles to practical life.— A general review. 

when viewed afterward in connection with what 
follows them. 

In conducting reviews, regard must be had to 
the age and character of the pupils, and to the 
branch pursued. In arithmetic, and, indeed, in 
mathematics generally, where so much depends 
upon every link in the great chain, very frequent 
reviews are necessary. Indeed, almost daily it is 
profitable to call up some principle before gone 
over. In several branches, where the parts have 
a less intimate connection, as in geography, nat- 
ural philosophy, and some others, the reviews may 
be at greater intervals. It would be well, I think, 
in every common school, to have a review-day 
once a week. This, besides the advantages already 
indicated, will lead the children to study for some- 
thing beyond recitation. Nor is it enough at the 
review, that the questions of the text-book be 
again proposed to the children. If this be all, they 
will only exercise their memories. As far as pos- 
sible, the subject should be called up, and the ap- 
plication of principles to practical life should be 
dwelt upon. If this course is expected by the 
learners, they will think during the week, in order 
to anticipate the examination of the teacher ; and 
this thinking is more profitable to them than the 
knowledge itself. 

It is always well, besides the periodical reviews, 
to have a general review at the close of any 
particular study. This enables the teacher to 
detect any false conceptions which the pupil has 



290 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

An exception. 

entertained during the first course. He can now 
present the subject 'as a whole, and view one 
part by the light of another. In natural philoso- 
phy, how much better the law of reflected mo- 
tion can be appreciated after the subject of optics 
has been studied, in which the doctrine of reflec- 
tion in general has been fully discussed and 
illustrated. In physiology, what light is thrown 
upon the process of growth in the system, by 
the subsequent chapters on absorption and secre- 
tion. How much clearer is the economy of 
respiration understood when viewed in connec- 
tion with the circulation of the blood. A general 
review then is an enlightening process, and it is 
always profitable, with, perhaps, one exception. 
When it is instituted with reference to a public 
examination, it is very doubtful whether the 
evil is not greater than the good. It then degen- 
erates into an effort to appear well at a particu- 
lar time : again, it is studying in order to recite ; 
and I look upon it as no small evil, that the 
mind should have any object in view which 
comes in between it and the grand desire to 
know, — to master the subject for its own sake, 
and not simply for the purpose of being able to 
talk about it on one great occasion. 

SECTION VI.— PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS. 

It is now the usage in all our schools to have 
public examinations, — generally at the close of a 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 291 

Examinations not without objections. 



term, or a portion of a term, — in order to test, in 
some measure, the industry and skill of the teacher, 
and the proficiency of the pupils. I am hardly 
prepared to oppose this usage, because I am in- 
clined to believe examinations are of some utility 
as a means of awakening an interest in the parents 
of the children : perhaps they do something to 
stimulate school-officers, and also to excite both 
teacher and pupils to greater effort during the 
term. Still, public examinations, as frequently 
conducted, are not without serious objections. 

1. They certainly can not be looked upon as 
criterions of the faithfulness or success of teach- 
ers. A man with tact, and without honesty, may 
make his school appear to far greater advantage 
than a better man can make a better school 
appear. This has often happened. It is not 
the most faithful and thorough teaching that 
makes the show and attracts the applause at a 
public exhibition. It is the superficial, mechan- 
ical, memoriter exercise that is most imposing. 
Who has not seen a class, that recited by rote 
and in concert at a celebration, win the largest 
approbation, when many of the individuals knew 
not the import of the words they uttered. Names 
in geography have been thus "said or sung," 
when the things signified were to the children 
as really terrce incognitce as the fairy lands of 
Sindbad the Sailor. 

2. Nor can such exhibitions be claimed justly 
to indicate the proficiency of the pupils. Every 



292 SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Not to be taken as indices of proficiency. — Encourage deception. 

experienced teacher knows that the best scholars 
often fail at a public examination, and the most 
indolent and superficial often distinguish them- 
selves. The spectators, not unfrequently, in point- 
ing out the talent of the school, make the teacher 
smile at their blunders. 

3. They present a strong temptation to dis- 
honesty on the part of the teacher. Since so 
much stress is laid upon the examination, and 
particularly, in some regions, upon the Celebra- 
tion, where several schools are brought together 
to make a show for few hours, it must be rather 
an uncommon man who will have sufficient prin- 
ciple to exhibit his school as it is, and refuse to 
make those efforts so very common to have it 
appear what it is not. The wish, expressed or 
implied, of the parents, and the ambition of the 
children, all conspire to make the teacher yield 
to a usage so common. Consequently, several 
weeks will be spent to prepare the children to 
appear in public. During this time, they study 
not for improvement, not for future usefulness, 
but simply to make a show at the public cele- 
bration. An unworthy and unwarrantable motive 
actuates them during all this process ; and, at 
last, unless strangely benighted, they are con- 
scious of holding up a false appearance to the 
world. Now, under such circumstances, what- 
ever of good is effected, by way of enkindling a 
zeal in the parents, is dearly purchased. The 
sacrifice of principle in a teacher — much more in 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 293 

Teacher should be honest.— Great motives.— Further caution. 

the children — is a large price to pay for the 
applause of a few visitors, or even for an increase 
of interest among them in the cause of popular 
education. 

Examinations, however, which are less showy, 
and which are of such a character as thoroughly 
to sift the teachings that have been given, and 
to thwart any ingenious efforts specially to pre- 
pare for them — examinations that look back to 
the general teaching of the term or the yea^, 
and test the accuracy and thoroughness of tho 
instructions — are unquestionably very desirable 
and useful. To make them so in the highest 
sense, and to exempt them from an evil tendency 
upon the minds of the young themselves, the 
teacher should he strictly honest. Not a lesson 
should be given with sole reference to the exhi- 
bition at the close; not an exercise should be 
omitted because the examination approaches. 
The good teacher should keep those great mo- 
tives before the mind, which look to future use- 
fulness, and to the discharge of duty. The child 
should be taught that he is accountable for what 
he acquires, and what he may acquire, and not for 
what he may appear to have acquired ; and that 
this accountability is not confined to a single 
day, soon to pass and be forgotten ; but it runs 
through all time and all eternity. 

I know not but the expectation of an exam- 
ination may stimulate some to greater exertion, 
and make them better scholars. If this be so, it 



294 SCHOOL AKEANGEMENTS. 

Restrictions and limitations. 

may be well enough ; and yet I should be slow 
to present such a motive to the mind of a child, 
because a special or secondary accountability 
always detracts from the general and chief. 

A strong reason, in addition to those already 
assigned, why special preparation should not be 
made for the examination, is, that where such 
preparation is expected, the pupils become care- 
less in their ordinary exercises. 

While, then, I think too much stress is at 
present placed upon showy exhibitions and cele- 
brations, and that objections and dangers attend 
examinations, as frequently conducted, I would 
not recommend altogether their discontinuance. 
I would rather urge that the teacher, by his 
inflexible honesty, should make them fair repre- 
sentations of the actual condition of his school, 
without relying very much upon them as a means 
of stimulating the pupils to exertion ; that the 
pupils should be made to feel that the results 
of their exertion through the term, rather than 
a few special efforts near its close, would be 
brought into review ; that no hypocrisy or man- 
agement should ever be tolerated, in order to 
win the applause of the multitude ; that no par- 
ticular lessons should ever be assigned for the 
occasion ; that it should be remembered, that 
the moral effect of an occasional failure at exam- 
ination, will be more salutary upon the school 
than unbroken success ; and that the children 
are irreparably injured, when they are made in 



SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS. 295 

Profitable examinations. 

any way the willing instruments of false pre- 
tension. 

Under such circumstances, examinations may 
be profitable to all concerned. If teacher and 
pupils have done well, they have the opportunity 
of showing it without violence to their own con- 
sciences. The employers, and patrons too, have 
some means of forming a correct estimate of the 
value of their school ; and all parties may be 
encouraged and stimulated. But above all things, 

LET THE TEACHER BE HONEST. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE TEACHER'S RELATION TO THE PARENTS 
OF HIS PUPILS. 

IN the choice of a clergyman, after estimating 
his moral and religious character, and ascer- 
taining the order of his pulpit talents, a third 
question remains to be answered, viz. : — What 
are his qualifications as a pastor f How is he 
adapted to fulfill the various relations of private 
friend and counselor ; and in the family circle, 
in his intercourse with the aged and the young, 
how is he fitted to 

" Allure to brighter worlds and lead the way " 1 

In that sacred profession, every one knows that 
nearly as much good is to be done by private 
intercourse as in the public ministration. Many 
a heart can be reached by a friendly and in- 
formal conversation, that would remain unmoved 
by the most powerful eloquence from the pulpit. 
Besides, many are prepared to be profited in the 
public exercises by that intercourse in private 
which has opened their hearts, removed preju- 
dice, and engendered a feeling of friendly interest 
in the preacher. The admonitions of the gospel 
thus have the double power of being truth, 



teacher's relation to parents. 297 



Social qualities in a teacher.— Ho should call on the parents. 



and truth uttered by the lips of a valued 
friend. 

It is, to some extent, thus with the school 
teacher. He may be very learned and very apt 
to teach, and yet fail of success in his district. 
Hence, it is highly important that he should 
possess and carefully cultivate those social quali- 
ties, which will greatly increase his usefulness. 
The teacher should consider it a part of his duty, 
whenever he enters a district, to excite a deeper 
interest there, among the patrons of the school, 
than they have ever before felt. He should not 
be satisfied till he has reached every mind con- 
nected with his charge in such a way that they 
will cheerfully co-operate with him and sustain 
his judicious efforts for good. Being imbued with 
a deep feeling of the importance of his work, he 
should let them see that he is alive to the in- 
terests of their children. To this end, — 

1. He should seek frequent opportunities of 
intercourse with the parents. Though the ad- 
vances toward this point, by the strict rules of 
etiquette, should be made by the parents them- 
selves (as by some it is actually and seasonably 
done) — yet, as a general thing, taking the world 
as we find it, the teacher must lead the way. 
He must often introduce himself uninvited to 
the people among whom he dwells, calling at 
their homes in the spirit of his vocation, and 
conversing with them freely about his duty to 
their children and to themselves. Every parent, 



298 THE teacher's relation 



Object of his calls.— He should explain his plans. 

of course, will feel bound to be courteous and 
civil in his own house; and, by such an inter- 
view, perhaps a difference of opinion, a prejudice, 
or a suspicion may be removed, and the founda- 
tion of a mutual good understanding be laid, 
which many little troubles can never shake. It 
may be very useful to have an interview with 
such parents as have been disturbed by some ad- 
ministration of discipline upon members of their 
families. Let me not be understood, however, to 
recommend that the teacher should ever go the 
parent in a cringing, unmanly spirit. It would 
probably be far better that the parties should 
ever remain entire strangers, than that their 
meeting should necessarily be an occasion of 
humiliating retraction on the part of the teacher. 
Neither should the parents ever be allowed to 
expect that the teacher always will, as a matter 
of duty, come to their confessional. But it is 
believed, if there could be a meeting of the par- 
ties as men, as gentlemen, as Christians, as co- 
adjutors for the child's welfare, it would always 
be attended with good results. 

2. He should be willing to explain all his plans 
to the parents of his pupils. If they had implicit 
confidence in him, and would readily and fully 
give him every facility for carrying forward all 
his designs without explanation, then, perhaps, 
this direction might not be necessary. But, as 
the world is, he can not expect spontaneous con- 
fidence. They wish to know his designs, and it 



TO THE PARENTS OF HIS PUPILS. 299 
Encourage inquiry.— No mystery. 

is best they should be informed of them by him- 
self. The best way for the teacher to interest 
them in the business of education, will be freely 
to converse with them concerning the measures 
he intends to adopt. If his plans are judicious, 
he of course can show good reasons why they 
should be carried into effect ; and parents are 
generally willing to listen to reason, especially 
when it is directed to the benefit of their own 
children. Many a parent, upon the first an- 
nouncement of a measure in school, has stoutly 
opposed it, who, upon a little explanatory con- 
versation with the teacher, would entertain a 
very different opinion, and ever after would be 
most ready to countenance and support it. 

It seems to me a teacher may safely encour- 
age inquiry into all his movements in school. 
There is an old saying — in my opinion a mis- 
chievous one, — which enjoins it as a duty upon 
all, to "tell no tales out of school." I see no ob- 
jection to the largest liberty in this matter. Why 
may not every thing be told, if told correctly? 
Parents frequently entertain a suspicious spirit 
as to the movements of the teacher. Would not 
very much of this be done away, if it was under- 
stood there was no mystery about the school ? 
The teacher who would thus invite inquiry, would 
be very careful never to do any thing which he 
would not be willing to have related to the 
parents, or even to be witnessed by them. I 
would have no objection, if it were possible, that 



300 THE teacher's relation 

Encourage parental visitation.— Begin with mothers.— Be honest. 

the walls of our school-rooms, as you look inward, 
should be transparent, so that any individual un- 
perceived might view with his own eyes the 
movements within. The consciousness of such 
an oversight would work a healthy influence upon 
those who have too long delighted in mystery. 

3. The teacher should encourage parents to 
visit his school frequently. There is almost every- 
where too great backwardness on the part of 
parents to do this duty. The teacher should 
early invite them to come in, It is not enough 
that he do this in general terms. He may fix 
the time, and arrange the party, so that those 
who would assimilate, should be brought together. 
It will frequently be wise to begin with the 
mothers, where visitation has been unusual. They 
will soon bring in the fathers. As often as they 
come they will be benefited. When such visits 
are made, the teacher should not depart from his 
usual course of instruction on their account. Let 
all the recitations and explanations be attended 
to, all praises and reproofs, all rewards and pun- 
ishments be as faithfully and punctually dis- 
pensed as if no person were present. In other 
words, let the teacher faithfully exhibit the school 
just as it is, its lights and its shadows, so that 
they may see all its workings, and understand all 
its trials as well as its encouragements. 

Such visitations under such circumstances, it 
is believed, would ever be highly beneficial. The 
teacher's difficulties and cares would be better 



TO THE PARENTS OF HIS PUPILS. 301 

Be frank and true with parents. 

understood, and his efforts to be useful appre- 
ciated. The hindrances, thus seen to impede his 
progress, would be promptly removed, and the 
teacher would receive more cordial sympathy and 
support. 

But if the teacher makes such visits the occa- 
sion for putting a false appearance upon the 
school ; if he takes to himself unusual airs, such 
as make him ridiculous in the eyes of his pupils, 
and even in his own estimation ; if he attempts 
to bring before the visitors his best classes, and 
to impress them with his own skill by showing 
off his best scholars, they will, sooner or later, dis- 
cover his hypocrisy, and very likely despise him 
for an attempt to deceive them. 

4. The teacher should be frank in all his rep- 
resentations to parents concerning their children. 
This is a point upon which many teachers most 
lamentably err. In this, as in every other case, 
"honesty is the best policy." If an instructor 
informs a parent during the term that his son is 
making rapid progress, or, as the phrase is — "do- 
ing very well," he excites in him high expecta- 
tions ; and if at the end of the term, it turns out 
otherwise, the parent, with much justice, may feel 
that he has been injured, and may be expected to 
load him with censure instead of praise. Let a 
particular answer, and a true one, always be 
given to the inquiry — "How does my child get 
along?" The parent has a right to know, and 
the teacher has no right to conceal the truth. 



302 THE TEACHER'S RELATION 

No evasion.— Study the art of conversation.— Be modest. 

Sometimes teachers, fearing the loss of a pupil, 
have used some indefinite expression, which, how- 
ever, the doting parent is usually ready to inter- 
pret to his child's advantage. But sooner or later 
the truth will appear ; and when the teacher is 
once convicted of any misrepresentation in this 
particular, there is rarely any forgiveness for him. 
For this reason and for his own love of truth, for 
his own reputation and for the child's welfare, he 
should keep nothing back. He should tell the 
whole story plainly and frankly, — and the parent, 
if he is a gentleman, will thank him for his 
faithfulness to him ; and if he has any sense of 
justice, he will be ready to co-operate with him 
for his child's improvement. At any rate, such 
a course will insure the reward of a good con- 
science. 

The teacher, as I have before urged, should 
have the habits and manners of a gentleman. 
He should strive also to acquire the ability to 
converse in an easy and agreeable way, so that 
his society shall never be irksome. He, in other 
words, should be a man who does not require 
much entertaining. Modesty, withal, is a great 
virtue in the teacher ; especially in his intercourse 
with the people of his district. Teachers, from 
their almost constant intercourse with their pu- 
pils, are apt to think their own opinions infallible ; 
and they sometimes commit the ridiculous error, 
of treating others wiser than themselves, as chil- 
dren in knowledge. This infirmity, incident to 



TO THE PARENTS OF HIS PUPILS 303 
"Out-door work."— Its result. 

the profession, should be carefully avoided ; and 
while the teacher should ever endeavor to make 
his conversation instructive, he should assume* no 
airs of superior learning or infallible authority. 
He should remember the truth in human nature, 
that men are best pleased to learn without being 
reminded that they are learners. 

I have known some teachers who have sneered 
at what they have termed the "out-door work" 
here recommended. They have thrown them- 
selves upon their dignity, and have declared that 
when they had done their duty within the school- 
room, they had done all that could be expected, 
and that parents were hound to co-operate with 
them and sustain them. But, after all, we must 
take the world as we find it ; and since parents 
do not always feel interested as they should, I 
hold it to be a part of the teacher's duty to excite 
their interest, and to win them to his aid by all 
the proper means in his power. In doing this he 
will, in the most effectual way, secure the prog- 
ress of his school, and at the same time advance 
his own personal improvement. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

teacher's care of his health. 

NO employment is more wearing to the con- 
stitution than the business of teaching. 
So many men falter in this employment from ill 
health, so many are deterred from entering it, 
because they have witnessed the early decay and 
premature old age of those who have before 
pursued it, and so many are still engaged in it, 
who almost literally "drag their slow length 
along," groaning under complicated forms of dis- 
ease and loss of spirits, which they know not 
how to tolerate or cure, — that it has become a 
serious inquiry among the more intelligent of 
the profession, "Can not something be known 
and practiced on this subject, which shall remove 
the evils complained of?" Is it absolutely neces- 
sary that teachers shall be dyspeptics and inva- 
lids? Must devotion to a calling so useful be 
attended with a penalty so dreadful? 

A careful survey of the facts, by more than 
one philanthropist, has led to the conclusion that 
the loss of health is not necessarily attendant 
upon the teacher of the young. It is believed, 
indeed, that the confinement from the air and 
sunlight, and the engrossing nature of his pur- 



TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 305 



Laws of health should be studied.— Effect of a change of employment. 



suits, have a strong tendency to bring on an irri- 
tability of the nervous system, a depression of 
spirits, and a prostration of the digestive func- 
tions ; but it is also believed that, by following 
strictly and systematically, the known laws of 
health, this tendency may be successfully resisted, 
and the teacher's life and usefulness very much 
prolonged. The importance of the subject, and 
a desire to render this volume as useful as possi- 
ble, has induced me to ask leave to transfer to 
its pages, with slight abbreviation, the very judi- 
cious and carefully written chapter on " Health — 
Exercise — Diet," contained in the " School and 
School-master," from the gifted pen of George 
B. Emerson, Esq., of Boston, — one of the most 
enlightened educators of the present age. 

HEALTH— EXERCISE— DIET. 

"The teacher should have perfect health. It 
may seem almost superfluous to dwell here upon 
what is admitted to be so essential to all per- 
sons ; but it becomes necessary, from the fact 
that nearly all those who engage in teaching, 
leave other and more active employments to 
enter upon their new calling. By this change, 
and by the substitution of a more sedentary life 
within-doors, for a life of activity abroad, the 
whole habit of the body is changed, and the 
health will inevitably suffer, unless precautions 
be taken which have never before been neces- 



306 TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 
Exercise.— Teacher specially needs it.— Walking.— How ? 

sary. To all such persons — to all, especially, who 
are entering upon the work of teaching, with a 
view of making it their occupation through life, 
a knowledge of the laws of health is of the 
utmost importance, and to such this chapter is 
addressed. I shall speak of these laws briefly, 
under the heads of Exercise, Air, Sleep, Food, 
and Dress. 

"Exercise. So intimate is the connection be- 
tween the various parts of our compound nature, 
that the faculties of the mind can not be natu- 
rally, fully, and effectually exercised, without the 
health of the body. And the first law of health 
is, that which imposes the necessity of exercise. 

"The teacher can not be well without exer- 
cise, and usually a great deal of it. No other 
pursuit requires so much, — no other is so ex- 
hausting to the nerves ; and exercise, air, cheer- 
fulness, and sunshine, are necessary to keep them 
in health. Most other pursuits give exercise of 
body, sunshine, and air, in the very performance 
of the duties that belong to them. This shuts 
us up from all. 

"One of the best, as one of the most natural 
modes of exercise, is walking. To give all the 
good effects of which it is susceptible, a walk 
must be taken either in pleasant company, or, if 
alone, with pleasant thoughts ; or, still better, 
with some agreeable end in view, such as gath- 
ering plants, or minerals, or observing other 
natural objects. Many a broken constitution has 



TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 307 

President Hitchcock.— Riding on horseback.— Garden. 

been built up, and many a valuable life saved, 
and prolonged, by such a love of some branch of 
natural history as has led to snatch every oppor- 
tunity for a walk, with the interest of a delight- 
ful study, 

'Where living things, and things inanimate 
Do speak, at Heaven's command, to eye and ear.' 

The distinguished geologist of Massachusetts, 
President Hitchcock, was once, when teacher of 
a school, reduced to so low a state by disease of 
the nerves, which took the ugly shape of dys- 
pepsia, that he seemed to be hurrying rapidly 
toward the grave. Fortunately, he became inter- 
ested in mineralogy, and this gave him a strong 
motive to spend all his leisure time in the open 
air, and to take long circuits in every direction. 
He forgot that he was pursuing health, in the 
deeper interest of science ; and thus, aided by 
some other changes in his habits, but not in his 
pursuits, he gradually recovered the perfect 
health which has enabled him to do so much for 
science, and for the honor of his native State. 

" Riding on horseback is one of the best modes 
of exercise possible for a sedentary person. It 
leads to an erect posture, throws open the chest, 
gives a fuller breathing, and exercises the mus- 
cles of the arm and upper part of the frame. 
* * * In weakness of the digestive organs its 
efficacy is remarkable. * * * 

"A garden furnishes many excellent forms of 



308 teachee's care of his health. 

Earm labor.— Rowing.— Sawing and splitting wood. 

exercise, and the numerous labors of a farm 
would give every variety, if the teacher could be 
in a situation to avail himself of them. This is 
not often the case. When accessible, the rake, 
the pitchfork, moderately used, can not be too 
highly recommended. A garden is within the 
reach of most teachers in the country. It has 
the advantage of supplying exercise suited to 
every degree of strength, and of being filled with 
objects gratifying to the eye and taste. * * * 
The flower-garden and shrubbery commend them- 
selves to the female teacher. To derive every 
advantage from them, she must be willing to 
follow the example often set by the ladies of 
England, and use the hoe, the rake, the pruning- 
hook, and the grafting-knife, with her own hands. 

"Rowing, when practicable, is a most health- 
ful exercise. It gives play to every muscle and 
bone in the frame. * * * When the river is 
frozen, skating may take the place of rowing ; 
and it is an excellent substitute. * * * Driv- 
ing a chaise or a sleigh, is a healthful exercise, 
if sufficient precaution be used to guard against 
the current which is always felt, as it is produced 
by the motion of the vehicle, even in still air. 

"Sawing and splitting wood form a valuable 
exercise, particularly important for those who 
have left an active life for the occupation of 
teaching. 

"Exercise should be taken in the early part 
of the day. Warren Colburn, the author of the 



TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 309 
Warren Colburn.— In the morning.— In open air.— In the light. 

Arithmetic, whose sagacity in common things 
was as remarkable as his genius for numbers, 
used to say, that half an hour's walk before 
breakfast did him as much good as an hour's 
after. Be an early riser. The air of morning is 
more bracing and invigorating ; the sights, and 
sounds, and odors of morning are more refresh- 
ing. A life's experience in teaching declares the 
morning best. * * * 

"Exercise must always be taken, if possible, 
in the open air. Air is as essential as exercise, 
and often, in warm weather particularly, more so. 
They belong together. The blood flows not as it 
should, it fails to give fresh life to the brain, if 
we breathe not fresh air enough. The spirits 
can not enjoy the serene cheerfulness which the 
teacher needs, if he breathe not fresh air enough. 
The brain can not perform its functions ; thought 
can not be quick, vigorous, and healthy, without 
ample supplies of air. Much of the right moral 
tone, of habitual kindliness and thankful rever- 
ence, depends on the air of heaven. 

"Exercise must be taken in the light; and if 
it may be, in the sunshine. Who has not felt 
the benignant influence of sunshine ? The sun's 
light seems almost as essential to our well-being 
as his heat, or the air we breathe. It has a great 
effect on the nerves. A distinguished physician 
of great experience, Dr. J. C. Warren, of Boston, 
tells me that he almost uniformly finds diseases 
that affect the nerves, exasperated by the dark- 



310 TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 

Cleanliness.— Water.— Sleep.— Six or eight hours. 

ness of night and mitigated by the coming on 
of day. All plants growing in the air lose their 
strength and color when excluded from light. 
So in a great degree does man. They lose their 
fine and delicate qualities, and the preciousness 
of their juices. Man loses the glow of his spirits, 
and the warmth and natural play of his finer 
feelings. * * * 

"Next to air and light, water is the most 
abundant element in nature. It can hardly be 
requisite to enjoin upon the teacher the freest 
use of it. The most scrupulous cleanliness is 
necessary, not only on his own account, but that 
he may be able always to insist upon it, with 
authority, in his pupils. The healthy state of 
the nerves, and of the functions of digestion, 
depends in so great a degree on the cleanliness 
of the skin, that its importance can hardly be 
overstated. * * * 

"Sleep. No more fatal mistake in regard to 
his constitution can be made by a young person 
given to study, than that of supposing that Nature 
can be cheated of the sleep necessary to restore 
its exhausted, or strengthen its weakened powers. 
From six to eight hours of sleep are indispensa- 
ble ; and with young persons, oftener eight or 
more, than six. It is essential to the health of 
the body, and still more to that of the mind. It 
acts directly on the nervous system ; and irrita- 
bility, or what is called nervousness, is the con- 
sequence of its loss. This, bad in any person, is 



teacher's care of his health. 311 

Diet.— Simple food.— Extremes' in kind and quantity. 

worse in the teacher than in any one else. It is 
an unfailing source of unhappiness to himself and 
to all his school. He would be unwise to sub- 
ject himself to the consequences of the loss of 
sleep ; he has no right to subject others. * * * 

"Diet. To no person is an attention to diet 
more important than to the teacher. For his 
own guidance, and that he may be able to give 
proper instructions in regard to this subject to 
his pupils, the conclusions of experience, or what 
we may consider the laws of diet, should be 
familiar to him. Some of these are the fol- 
lowing : 

"1. Food should be simple; not of too little 
nor too great variety. The structure of the teeth, 
resembling at once those of animals that natu- 
rally subsist on flesh, and of animals that take 
only vegetable food, and the character and length 
of the digestive organs, holding a medium be- 
tween the average of these two classes, indicate 
that a variety of food, animal and vegetable, is 
natural to man, and in most cases probably neces- 
sary. The tendency in most parts of this coun- 
try, from the great abundance of the necessaries 
of life, is to go to excess in the consumption of 
food, particularly of animal food. The striking 
evils of this course have led many to the oppo- 
site extreme — to renounce meats entirely. Expe- 
rience of the evils of this course also has in 
most cases brought men back to the safe me- 
dium. No person needs to be more careful in 



812 TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 
True medium.— Taken at intervals.— Moderate quantity. 

regard to the quality and nature of his food 
than the teacher, as his exclusion from air for a 
great part of the day leaves him in an unfit con- 
dition to digest unwholesome food, while the 
constant use of his lungs renders his appetite 
unnaturally great, or destroys it altogether. 
Animal food seems to be necessary, but not in 
great quantities, nor oftener, usually, than once 
a day. * * * In winter, the food should be 
nourishing, and may be more abundant ; in sum- 
mer, less nutritious, less of animal origin, and in 
more moderate quantity. 

"2. Food should be taken at sufficiently dis- 
tant intervals. * * * The operation of diges- 
tion is not completed, ordinarily, in less than four 
hours. Food should not be taken at shorter 
intervals than this ; and intervals of five or six 
hours are better, as they leave the stomach some 
time to rest. 

" 3. It should be taken in moderate quantity. 
In the activity of common life excess is less to 
be dreaded than with the sedentary habits and 
wearying pursuits of the teacher. * * * The 
exhaustion of teaching is that of the nervous 
power, and would seem to call for hours of quiet, 
and freedom from care, with cheerful conversa- 
tion, and the refreshment of air and gentle exer- 
cise. Probably all the kinds of food in general 
use are wholesome when partaken of moderately. 
Those who, from choice or compulsion, pass from 
an active to a sedentary life, should at the game 



TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 313 

Avoid fat.— Fruit.— Drink water. — At meals. 

time restrict themselves to one half their accus- 
tomed quantity of food. 

" 4. As a general rule, fat should be avoided. 
* * * None but a person who takes a great deal 
of most active exercise, or is much exposed to 
cold, can long bear its use with impunity. If 
taken, fat in a solid form is less injurious than 
liquid fat. 

" 5. Fruit may be eaten with the recollection 
of the proverb of fruit-producing countries : ' It is 
gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at 
night.' Ripe fruit in its season is wholesome, and 
preferable for a person of sedentary habits, to more 
nourishing and exciting food. But it should be a 
substitute for other food, not an addition. A bad 
practice, common in some places, of eating fruit, 
especially the indigestible dried fruits, raisins, 
and nuts, in the evening, should be avoided by 
the teacher. He must have quiet and uninter- 
rupted sleep and early hours, to be patient, gen- 
tle, and cheerful in school. 

" 6. The drink of a sedentary person should 
be chiefly water, and that in small quantities, 
and only at meals. The intelligent Arab of the 
desert drinks not during the heat of the day. 
He sees that watering a plant in the sunshine 
makes it wither ; and he feels in himself an anal- 
ogous effect from the use of water. There are 
few lessons in regard to diet so important to be 
inculcated as this : ' Drink not between meals.' 

" 7. The last rule to be observed is, that no 



314 teacher's care of his health. 

Dress.— Cheerfulness. 

unnecessary exertion of mind or body should be 
used immediately after a meal. If a walk must 
be taken, it should rather be a leisurely stroll than 
a hurried walk. 

"Dress. The teacher should be no sloven. 
He should dress well, not over nicely, not extrav- 
agantly ; neatly, for neatness he must teach by 
example as well as by precept ; and warmly, for 
so many hours of the day shut in a warm room 
will make him unusually sensitive to cold. The 
golden rule of health should never be forgotten : 
'Keep the head cool, the feet warm,and the body 
free.' The dress of the feet is particularly im- 
portant. Coldness or dampness of the feet causes 
headache, weakness and inflammation of the 
eyes, coughs, consumptions, and sometimes fe- 
vers. A headache is often cured by sitting with 
the feet long near a fire. Keeping the feet warm 
and dry alleviates the common affections of the 
eyes, repels a coming fever, prevents or quiets 
coughs, and serves as one of the surest safe- 
guards against consumption. Many of our most 
sensible physicians trace the prevalence of con- 
sumption in Northern States, not to our climate, 
but to the almost universal custom of wearing 
insufficient clothing, especially on the feet. 

" There is another subject intimately connected 
with health, which has been alluded to, but which 
ought, from its importance, to receive more than 
a passing remark. It is cheerfulness. This should 
be one of the ends and measures of health. It 



teacher's care of his health. 315 

Cause of low spirits.— A home.— Sociality. 

ought to be considered the natural condition of a 
healthy mind ; he who is not cheerful is not in 
health. If he has not some manifest moral 
cause of melancholy, there must be something 
wrong in the body, or in the action of the powers 
of the mind. 

"A common cause of low spirits in a teacher 
is anxiety in regard to the well doing of his pu- 
pils. This he must feel ; but he must endeavor, 
as far as possible, to banish it from his hours of 
relaxation. He must leave it behind him when 
he turns from the school-house door. To prevent 
its haunting him, he must seek pleasant society. 
He must forget it among the endearments of 
home, the cheerful faces and kind voices of 
friends. This is the best of all resources, and 
happy is the man who has a pleasant home, in 
the bosom of which he may rest from labor and 
from care. If he be among strangers, he must 
endeavor to find or make friends to supply the 
place of home. He must seek the company of 
the parents and friends of his pupils, not only 
that he may not be oppressed by the loneliness 
of his situation, but that he may better under- 
stand the character of his pupils and the influ- 
ences to which they are subjected. The exercise 
of the social affections is essential to the healthy 
condition of a well-constituted mind. Often he 
will find good friends and pleasant companions 
among his pupils. Difference of years disappears 
before kindliness of feeling, and sympathy may 



316 TEACHER'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 
Music— A pernicious habit.—" Comforter." 

exist between those most remote in age, and pur- 
suit, and cultivation. 



"A delightful, but somewhat dangerous recre- 
ation is offered by music ; delightful, as always 
soothing to the wearied mind ; but dangerous, 
becauLtj liable to take to itself too much time. 
It would be desirable if every instructor could 
himself sing or play. If he can not, let him listen 
to songs or cheerful music from voice or instru- 
ment, or to the notes of birds. 

" ' I'm sick of noise and care, and now mine ear 
Longs for some air of peace.' " 



To the foregoing excellent remarks, I could 
scarcely wish to add any thing, save to call atten- 
tion to that pernicious habit among both clergy- 
men and teachers, of dressing the neck too 
warmly whenever they go into the open air. 
There seems to have obtained an impression that 
those who have occasion to speak often, should 
be peculiarly careful to guard their throats from 
the cold. Hence many are seen in a winter's day 
with a collar of fur, or a woolen "comforter," or 
at least a silk handkerchief of extraordinary di- 
mensions, around their necks, and often extend- 
ing above their mouths and nostrils. If they 
have occasion to step out but for a moment, they 
are still subject to the slavery of putting on this 
unnatural incumbrance. 



TEACHEE'S CARE OF HIS HEALTH. 317 

Bronchitis.—" Lung complaint."— Experience. 

Now, I believe that this extra covering for the 
neck, instead of preventing disease of the throat 
and lungs, is one of the most fruitful sources of 
such disease. These parts being thus thickly 
covered during exercise, become very warm, and 
an excessive local perspiration is excited ; and 
the dampness of the throat is much increased if 
the covering extends above the mouth and nose, 
thus precluding the escape of the exhalations 
from the lungs. When, therefore, this covering 
is removed, even within-doors, a very rapid evap- 
oration takes place, and a severe cold is the con- 
sequence. In this way a cold is renewed every 
day, and hoarseness of the throat and irritation 
of the lungs is the necessary result. Very soon 
the clergyman or teacher breaks down with the 
bronchitis, or the "lung complaint," and is obliged 
for a season, at least, to suspend his labors. This 
difficulty is very much enhanced, if the ordinary 
neck-dress is a stiff stock, which, standing off 
from the neck, allows the ingress of the cold air 
as soon as the outer covering is removed. 

Having suffered myself very severely from this 
cause, and having seen hundreds of cases in 
others, I was desirous to bear the testimony of 
my experience against the practice, — and to sug- 
gest to all who have occasion to speak long and 
often that the simplest covering for the neck is 
the best. A very light cravat is all that is neces- 
sary. If the ordinary cravat be too thick and 
too warm, as the large-sized white cravats, so 



318 TEACHER'S CAEE OF HIS HEALTH. 
Swaddling the neck. 

fashionable with the clergy, usually are, during 
the exercise of speaking, an unnatural flow of 
blood to the parts will be induced, which, after 
the exercise ceases, will be followed by debility 
and prostration. A cold is then very readily taken, 
and disease follows. I am confident, from my 
own experience and immediate observation, that 
this unnatural swaddling of the neck is one of 
the most fruitful causes of disease of the lungs 
and throat that can be mentioned. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

teacher's relation to his profession. 

IT has long been the opinion of the best minds 
in our country, as well as in the most en- 
lightened countries of Europe, that teaching 
should be a profession. It has been alleged, and 
with much justice, that this calling, which de- 
mands for its successful exercise the best of tal- 
ents, the most persevering energy, and the largest 
share of self-denial, has never attained an appre- 
ciation in the public mind at all commensurate 
with its importance. It has by no means received 
the emolument, either of money or honor, which 
strict justice would award, in any other depart- 
ment, to the talents and exertions required for 
this. This having been so long the condition of 
things, much of the best talent has been at- 
tracted at once to the other professions ; or, if 
exercised awhile in this, the temptation of more 
lucrative reward, or of more speedy, if not more 
lasting honor, has soon diverted it from teaching, 
where so little of either can be realized, to en- 
gage in some other department of higher promise. 
So true is this, that scarcely a man can be found, 
having attained to any considerable eminence as 
a teacher, who has not been several times solic- 



320 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Some noble souls.— Some small men.— Two evils. 

ited — and perhaps strongly tempted — to engage 
in some more lucrative employment; and while 
there have always been some strong men, who 
have preferred teaching to any other calling, — 
men who would do honor to any profession, and 
who, while exercising this, have found that high- 
est of all rewards, the consciousness of being 
useful to others, — still it must be confessed that 
teachers have too often been of just that class 
which a knowledge of the circumstances might 
lead us to predict would engage in teaching; 
men of capacity too limited for ' the other pro- 
fessions, of a temperament too sluggish to engage 
in the labors of active employment, of manners 
too rude to be tolerated except in the society of 
children (!), and sometimes of a morality so per- 
nicious, as to make them the unfailing contam- 
inators of the young whenever permitted — not to 
teach — but to "keep school." Thus, two great 
evils have been mutually strengthening each 
other. The indifference of the employers to the 
importance of good teachers, and their parsimony 
in meting out the rewards of teaching, have 
called into the field large numbers, in the strict- 
est sense, unworthy of all reward ; while this 
very un worthiness of the teachers has been made 
the excuse for further indifference, and, if pos- 
sible, for greater meanness on the part of em- 
ployers. Such has been the state of the case for 
many years past, and such is, to a great extent, 
the fact at present. 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 321 

Educational ntillennium.— How ushered in ?— Different views. 

It has been the ardent wish of many philan- 
thropists that this deplorable state of affairs 
should be exchanged for a better. Hence, they 
have urged that teaching should be constituted 
a profession ; that none should enter this pro- 
fession but those who are thoroughly qualified to 
discharge the high trust ; and, as a consequence, 
that the people should more liberally reward 
and honor those who are thus qualified and em- 
ployed. This would, indeed, be a very desirable 
change ; it would be the educational millennium 
of the world. For such a period, we all may well 
devoutly pray. 

But how shall this glorious age — not yet arrived 
— be ushered in ? By whose agency, and by what 
happy instrumentality must its approach be has- 
tened ? Here, as in all great enterprises, there is 
some difference of opinion. Some have urged 
that the establishment of normal schools and 
other seminaries for the better education of 
teachers, and the institution of a more vigilant 
system of supervision, by which our schools should 
be effectually guarded against the intrusion of 
the ignorant and inefficient teacher, is all that is 
necessary to bring in this brighter day. Others 
have zealously urged that such preparation and 
such supervision are entirely superfluous and 
premature in the present state of the public 
mind. They say that the public must first be- 
come more liberal in its appropriations for schools ; 
it must at once double the amount it has been 



822 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Truth between the extremes.— A mutual evil, and a mutual remedy. 

accustomed to pay to teachers, and thus secure 
to this vocation the best talent without further 
trouble. To this the former class reply, that 
the public has seldom been known to raise its 
price, so long as its wants could be supplied at 
the present rates. They say that the last century 
has afforded ample opportunity for the exhibition 
of this voluntary generosity of the public, and 
yet we still wait to see this anomaly in human 
prudence, of offering in advance to pay double 
the price for the same thing ; for until better 
teachers are raised up, it must be an advance 
upon the present stock. So there is a division 
among them, " for some cry one thing, and some 
another." 

Now, I believe, in this case as in most others, 
the truth lies between the extremes. As the 
evil complained of is a mutual one, as has already 
been shown, — that is, an illiberal public has toler- 
ated incompetent teachers, and the incompetence 
of teachers has enhanced in turn the parsimony 
of the public, — so the remedy must be a mutual 
one ; the public must be enlightened and teachers 
must be improved ; the pay of teachers must be 
raised, but there must be also something to war- 
rant the higher rate. Nor is it easy to determine 
which shall begin first. We can hardly expect 
the people to pay more, till they find an article 
worth more ; nor, on the other hand, can we 
expect the teachers to incur any considerable 
outlay to improve themselves, until better encour- 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 323 

Teachers should elevate their calling.— Encouragements. 

agement shall be held out to them by then- 
employers. The two must generally proceed to- 
gether. Just as in the descending scale, there 
was a mutual downward tendency, so here, bet- 
ter service will command better pay, and in turn, 
the liberality of employers will stimulate the 
employed to still higher attainments in knowledge 
and greater exertions in their labors. 

In this condition of things, the question recurs, 
What is the duty of teachers in relation to their 
calling ? I answer, they are bound to do what 
they can to elevate it. Lord Bacon said, "Every 
man owes a debt to his profession." Teachers 
being supposed to be more intelligent than the 
mass of the community, may justly take the 
lead in the work of progress. They should, as a 
matter of duty, take hold of this work, — a work 
of sacrifice and self-denial as it will be, at least 
for some time, — and heartily do what they can 
to magnify their office and make it honorable. 
In the meantime they may do what they can 
to arouse the people to a sense of their duty. 
The more enlightened are to some extent with 
them already. The press, the pulpit, the legisla- 
tive assemblies, all proclaim that something must 
be done. All admit the faithful teacher has not 
been duly rewarded, and some are found who 
are willing to do something for the improvement 
both of the mind and condition of the teacher. 
This is encouraging ; and while we rejoice at the 
few gleams of light that betoken our dawning, 



324 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Public safety restricts membership of professions. 

let us inquire, for a little space, how we can 
hasten the "coming in of the perfect day." 

Any one who will may become a tailor, a 
carpenter, or a mason ; but the practice of sur- 
gery, dentistry, and law, is restricted to a privi- 
leged few. Why are there thus open occupations 
(trades), and closed occupations (professions) ? 
The reason lies in the fact that it is easy to 
judge of the quality of the service rendered in 
one case, and very difficult in the other ; or that 
the public needs no formal protection against 
the incompetence of masons, while there is need 
of such protection against the incompetence of 
surgeons. It is therefore a measure of public 
safety that restricts the membership of profes- 
sions to those who have given a formal proof of 
their competence. 

On the other hand, as it requires a high grade 
of ability, a high degree of skill and peculiar 
knowledge, that can be obtained only at a great 
expense of time, labor, and money, to become 
qualified for the difficult and highly responsible 
duties of a profession, some hope of reward must 
be held out to induce men to undertake this 
arduous preparation. The most direct way to 
insure this reward has been found to be to pro- 
tect such men by cutting off unjust competition ; 
and this is effected by forbidding the incompe- 
tent to practice. It thus happens that by pro- 
tecting the professions, society protects itself ; 
and that the lowering of professional standards 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 325 

Teaching requires to be treated as a profession. 

is equivalent to exposing the public to the dan- 
gers of incompetence and pretense. 

So long as we regard general scholarship as 
constituting fitness for teaching, it is merely an 
occupation open to all the well educated. But, 
under the conception that to scholarship must 
be added skill and science, and that these ele- 
ments of fitness are of difficult attainment, there 
emerges the notion that the public should be 
protected in their dearest interests against in- 
competence and pretense ; and, as in the cases 
cited, the measure of public protection will be in 
exact ratio to the teacher's protection against 
unjust competition ; so that the whole case may 
be summed up as follows : 

1. Skill gained through the study of educa- 
tional science, should be counted as the pro- 
fessional mark of competence for teaching. 

2. The practice of teaching should be gradu- 
ally restricted to those who furnish formal proof 
of this professional competence. 

3. This protection against unjust competition 
will attract men and women of talent into the 
profession of teaching. 

4. There will be a gradual rise in the degree 
of public protection against incompetence in 
teaching. 

SECTION I.— SELF-CULTURE. 

The teacher should labor diligently to improve 
himself. This is a duty incumbent on all persons, 



326 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Teachers should possess general information. 

but particularly upon the teacher. The very nat- 
ure of his employment demands that his mind 
should be frequently replenished from the store- 
houses of knowledge. To interest children in 
their studies, how necessary is it that the teacher's 
mind should be thoroughly furnished with the 
richest thoughts of the wise ; to inspire them 
with a desire to learn, how important that he 
should be a living example of the advantage and 
enjoyment which learning alone can bestow ; to 
strew the path of knowledge with flowers, and 
thus make it the path of pleasantness, how de- 
sirable that he should abound with the aptest 
illustrations, drawn from all that is wonderful 
and curious in nature and art ; to awaken the 
young mind to a consciousness of its capacities, 
its wants, its responsibilities, how thoroughly 
should he know all the workings of the human 
soul, — how wisely and carefully should he touch 
the springs of action, — how judiciously should he 
call to his aid the conscience and the religious 
feelings ! 

Besides, let it be remembered that in this, as 
in other things, the teacher's example is of great 
importance. The young will be very likely to 
judge of the importance of their own improve- 
ment by the estimate the teacher practically 
places upon his ; nor can he, with any good 
grace, press his pupils to exertion, while they 
see that he makes none whatever himself. 

There is great danger, in the midst of the 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 327 

Stagnation accounted for.— The teacher has time. 

confinement and fatigue of the school-room, and 
the pressure of anxiety and care out of school, 
that the teacher will yield to the temptations of 
his position, and fall into habits of indolence as 
to his own improvement. Compelled, as he often 
is, to labor at great disadvantage, by reason of a 
small and poorly furnished school-room ; confined 
through the day from the sunshine and the fresh 
breeze ; subjected to a constant pressure of duty 
amid untold trials of his patience, arising from 
the law that impels children to be active as well 
as inconsiderate ; required to concentrate his 
powers upon the double duty of governing and 
teaching at the same instant, and all through 
the session, — it is not strange, when the hour of 
release comes, that he should seek rest or recrea- 
tion at the nearest point, even to the neglect of 
his own mental or moral culture. I am of the 
opinion that this accounts for the fact that so 
many persons enter the work of instruction, and 
continue in it for a longer or a shorter period, 
without making the slightest progress either in 
the art of teaching or in their own intellectual 
growth. Their first school, indeed, is often their 
best. This tendency or temptation, incident to 
the calling, it is the teacher's duty constantly 
and manfully to resist. He can do it. 

1. He has the time to do it. He is usually 
required to spend but six hours in the day in 
the school-room. Suppose he add two hours 



828 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Illustrated.— Punctuality in all things. 

more for the purpose of looking over his lessons 
and devising plans for improving his school, — he 
will still have sixteen hours for sleep, exercise, 
recreation, and improvement. Eight hours are 
sufficient for sleep, especially for a sedentary 
man (some say less), and four will provide for 
meals, exercise, and recreation. Four still re- 
main for improvement. Any teacher who is 
systematic and economical in the use of his 
time, can reserve, for the purpose of his own 
improvement, four hours in every twenty-four, 
and this without the slightest detriment to his 
school duties, or to his health. To be sure, he 
must lead a regular life. He must have a plan, 
and systematically follow it. He must be punct- 
ual, at his school, at his meals, at his exercise 
or recreation, at his hour of retiring and rising, 
and at his studies. Nor should he ordinarily de- 
vote more time than I have mentioned directly 
to his school. He should labor with his whole 
soul while he does work, and he will the more 
heartily do this, if he has had time to think of 
something else during the season of respite from 
labor. It is a great mistake that teachers make 
when they think they will be more successful 
by devoting all their thoughts to their schools. 
Very soon the school comes to occupy their 
sleeping as well as waking hours, and trouble- 
some dreams disturb the repose of night. Such 
men must soon wear out. 

But according to the laws of our nature, by 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 329 



Immediate reward.— Proof.— •flow to improve. 



a change of occupation the jaded faculties find 
rest. By taking up some new subject of inquiry, 
the intellect is relieved from the sense of fatigue 
which before oppressed it, the thoughts play freely 
again, the animation returns, the eye kindles, and 
the mind expands. 

2. Such labor finds immediate reward. The 
consciousness of groivth is no small thing toward 
encouraging the teacher. He feels that he is no 
longer violating his nature by allowing himself 
to stagnate. Then he will find every day that 
he can apply the newly-acquired truth to the 
illustration of some principle he is attempting to 
teach. He has encouraging and immediate proof 
that he is a better teacher, and that he has made 
himself so by timely exertion. He is thus again 
stimulated to rise above those temptations before 
described, — this immediate availability of his ac- 
quirements being vouchsafed to the teacher, as it 
is not to most men, in order to prompt him to 
stem the current which resists his progress. 

And now, if I have shown that a teacher is 
bound to improve himself, both from a regard to 
his own well-being, and the influence of his exam- 
ple upon others, — and if I have also shown that he 
can improve himself, I may be indulged in mak- 
ing a few suggestions as to the manner of his 
doing it. 

1. He should have a course of professional 
reading. It will do much for his improvement to 
read the works of those who have written on the 



330 TEACHER'S RELATION 

A course of professional reading. — The books. 

subject of education, and the art of teaching. If 
possible, he should collect and possess a small 
educational library. It will be of great service to 
him to be able to read more than once such 
suggestions as are abundantly contained in the 
"School and School-master," by Potter and Em- 
erson ; the " Teacher," by Abbott ; " Lectures," by 
Horace Mann ; " Lectures of the American Insti- 
tute of Instruction ; " " Thoughts on Education," 
by John Locke; " Education," by Spencer; "Es- 
says on Educational Reformers," by Quick ; 
" Emile," by Rousseau ; " Leonard and Gertrude," 
by Pestalozzi ; " Education as a Science," by 
Bain; "John Amos Comenius," "Primary In- 
struction," and the "Training of Teachers," by 
Laurie ; " Home Education," by Isaac Taylor ; 
"Household Education," by Miss Martineau ; "The 
Cyclopedia of Education," by Kiddle and Schem ; 
"Theory and Practice of Teaching," and "Edu- 
cation and School," by Thring ; " Day Dreams of 
a School-master," by Thompson ; " School Man- 
agement," by Landon ; " Lectures on Teaching," 
by Fitch ; " Histoire de la Pedagogie," by Com- 
payre ; " Levana," by Richter ; " School and In- 
dustrial Hygiene," by Lincoln ; " The Law of 
Public Schools," by Burke ; the writings, if they 
can be obtained, of Wyse, of Cousin, of Lalor, of 
Lord Brougham on Education, together with such 
other works as are known to contain sound and 
practical views. It is not to be expected that 
every teacher will possess all these, or that he 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 331 

A course of general study. — One thing at a time. 

will read them all in a single term. But it is 
well to hold converse with other minds, and to 
have it in our power to review their best thoughts 
whenever our own need refreshing. I have given 
a somewhat extended list of books, because the 
inquiry is now so often made by teachers, what 
they shall read. 

2. By pursuing systematically a course of 
general study. Many teachers who have a desire 
to improve themselves, still fritter away their 
time upon little miscellaneous matters, without 
making real progress. It is well in this to have 
a plan. Let some one study, — it may be geology, 
or astronomy, or chemistry, or botany, or the 
pure mathematics, — let some one study receive 
constant attention till no mean attainments have 
been made in it. By taking one thing at a time, 
and diligently pursuing it, at the end of a term 
the teacher feels that he has something to show 
for his labor, — and he is, by the advance already 
made, prepared to take the next and more diffi- 
cult step. In a course of years, while a neighbor, 
who began teaching at the same time, has been 
stagnating or even retrograding, for the want of 
a plan and a purpose, a diligent man, by system 
and perseverance, may make himself at least 
equal to many who have enjoyed better advan- 
tages in early life, and at the same time have 
the superadded enjoyment of feeling that he has 
been his own teacher. 

3. Keep a journal or commonplace-book. The 



332 • TEACHER'S RELATION 

A journal or commonplace-book.— Why ?— A demonstration. 

habit of composing daily is very valuable to the 
teacher. In this book he may record whatever 
plans he has devised with their results in practice. 
He may enter remarkable cases of discipline, — in 
short, any thing which, in the course of his prac- 
tice, he finds interesting. Those valuable sugges- 
tions which he receives from others, or hints that 
he may derive from books, may be epitomized 
here, and thus be treasured up for future refer- 
ence. Sometimes one's best thoughts fade from 
his own mind, and he has no power to recall 
them. Such a book would preserve them, and 
would, moreover, show the character of one's 
thoughts at any particular period, and the progress 
of thought, from one period to another, better 
than any other means.* 

To these means of self-culture I would add 
the practice of carefully reading and writing on 
chosen subjects, more fully described in the chap- 
ter on Habits of the Teacher. 

By all these means and such others as may 
come within his reach, if a teacher succeeds in 
his attempts at progress, he does much for his 
profession. The very fact that he has given prac- 
tical demonstration that a man may teach and 
still improve ; that the temptations of his profes- 
sion may be resisted and overcome ; that the life 
of the pedagogue which has required him to keep 
the company of small minds, and to be occupied 

* For further remarks on the Commonplace-book, see Chap, viii., 
p. 142. Note. 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 333 

Encouragement to others.— Mutual aid.— Selfishness. 

with minute objects, has never prevented his 
holding communion with the greatest men our 
earth has known, nor circumscribed in the least 
the sphere of his grasping research, — I say the 
very fact that he has thus shown what a man 
may do under such circumstances, may do much 
to encourage others to like effort. 

But there are other and direct duties which he 
owes to his profession, which I proceed to consider 
under the head of 



SECTION II.— MUTUAL AID. 

Every teacher should be willing to impart as 
well as to receive good. No one, whatever may 
be his personal exertions, can monopolize all the 
wisdom of the world. The French have a proverb 
that " Everybody is wiser than anybody." Acting 
on this principle, the teacher should be willing to 
bring his attainments into the common stock, 
and to diffuse around him, as far as he is able, 
the light he possesses. I have no language with 
which to express my abhorrence of that selfish- 
ness, which prompts a man, after attaining to 
some eminence as a teacher by the free use of 
all the means within his reach, self-complacently 
to stand aloof from his fellow-teachers, as if he 
would say, " Brethren, help yourselves — I have no 
need of you, and you have no claim upon me. 
I have toiled hard for my eminence, and the 
secret is with me. I will enjoy it alone. When 



834 teacher's relation 

An exclusive spirit— without excuse. — Mutual visitation. 

you have toiled as long, you may be as wise. 
Brethren, help yourselves." Such a spirit would 
perhaps be tolerated by the world in an avaricious 
man, who had labored to treasure up the shining 
dust of earth. But no man may innocently mo- 
nopolize knowledge. The light of the sun is shed 
in golden refulgence upon every man, and no one 
if he would, may separate a portion for his own 
exclusive use, by closing his shutters about him, — 
for that moment, his light becomes darkness. It 
is thus with the light of knowledge. Like the 
air we breathe, or like the rain from heaven, it 
should be free to all. The man who would lock 
up the treasures of learning from the gaze of the 
whole world, whether in the tomes of some dusty 
library, as of old it was done, or in the recesses 
of his narrower soul, is unworthy of the name 
of man ; he certainly has not the spirit of the 
teacher. 

An exclusive spirit may be borne where meaner 
things, as houses, and lands, and gold, are at 
stake ; but in education and religion — light and 
love, — where giving doth not impoverish nor with- 
holding make rich, there is not even the shadow 
of an excuse for it. The man who is exclusive in 
these things, would be so, I fear, in heaven. 

How can teachers encourage each other ? 

1. By mutual visitation. Very much may be 
done by social intercourse. Two teachers can 
scarcely converse together an hour without bene- 
fiting each other. The advantages of intercourse 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 335 

Dr. Young.— Even one's faults' may instruct us. 

with friends, as delineated by Dr. Young, may not 
be denied to teachers : 

"Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach? 
Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts shut up want air, 
And spoil like bales unopened to the sun. 
Had thought been all, sweet speech had been denied. 

********* 
Thought, too, delivered, is the more possessed : 
Teaching, we learn ; and giving, we retain 
The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot 
Speech ventilates our intellectual fire; 
Speech burnishes our mental magazine, 
Brightens for ornament, and whets for use." 

But not only should teachers visit one another, — 
it is profitable also for them to visit each other's 
schools. I have never spent an hour in the school 
of another without gaining some instruction. 
Sometimes a new way of illustrating a difficult 
point, sometimes an exhibition of tact in manag- 
ing a difficult case in discipline, sometimes an 
improved method of keeping up the interest in 
a class, would suggest the means of making my 
own labors the more successful. And even should 
one's neighbor be a bad teacher, one may some- 
times learn as much from witnessing glaring de- 
fects as great excellences. Some of the most 
profitable lessons I have ever received, have been 
drawn from the deflciences of a fellow teacher. 
We seldom "see ourselves as others see us"; and 
we are often insensible of our own faults till we 
have seen them strikingly exhibited by another; 
and then by a comparison we correct our own. 

Besides, by a visitation of a friend's school we 
may not only receive good, but we may impart 



336 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Stated teachers' meetings. — Their use. — Employ the pen. 



it. If there is mutual confidence, a few words 
may aid him to correct his faults, if he has any, 
— faults which, but for such suggestion, might 
grow into confirmed habits, to his permanent 
injury. 

So important is this mutual visitation among 
teachers, as a means of improvement, that I 
doubt not employers would find it for their in- 
terest to encourage it, by allowing the teachers 
to set apart an occasional half day for this 
purpose. 

It would, moreover, be very useful for the 
teachers of a town to hold stated meetings, as 
often as once a month, for the purpose of mu- 
tual improvement. It would cultivate a fellow- 
feeling among them, and it would afford them 
an opportunity to exchange thoughts on most of 
the difficulties which they meet in their schools, 
and the best methods of surmounting them. At 
these meetings, a mutual exchange of books on 
the subject of teaching, would extend the facili- 
ties of each for improving his own mind, and 
his methods of instruction and government. 

2. By the use of the pen. Every teacher 
should be a ready writer. Nearly every teacher 
could gain access to the columns of some paper, 
through which he could impart the results of his 
experience, or of his reflection. Such a course 
would benefit him specially, and, at the same 
time, it would awaken other minds to thought 
and action. In this way the attention, not only 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 337 

Teachers' Associations.— Institutes.— Their utility. 

of teachers, but also of parents, would be called to 
the great work of education. One mind in this 
way might move a thousand. If a teacher does 
not feel qualified to instruct, let him inquire, and 
thus call out the wisdom of others. This could 
be done in nearly every village. The press is 
almost always ready to promote the cause of edu- 
cation. By the use of it, teachers may profitably 
discuss all the great questions pertaining to their 
duty, and at the same time enlighten the com- 
munity in which they live. This is an instru- 
mentality as yet too little employed. 

3. By Teachers' Associations or Institutes. 
These are peculiarly adapted to the diffusion of 
the best plans of instruction. Rightly conducted, 
they can never fail of being useful. Every man 
who lectures or teaches, is profited by the prep- 
aration. If he is a man of wisdom and experi- 
ence, he will benefit his hearers. If otherwise, 
the discussion, which should eyer follow a lect- 
ure, will expose its fallacies. It has often hap- 
pened, in such associations, that an honest and 
experienced man has, in a half-hour, given to the 
younger portion of the members, lessons of wis- 
dom which it would take them years to learn by 
their own observation. Errors in principle and 
practice have been exposed, into which many a 
young teacher was unconsciously falling, and 
hints have been given to the quicker minds, by 
which their own modes of teaching and govern- 
ing have been speedily improved. 



338 teacher's relation 

Should be practical. — A perversion. — Talk. 

As far as possible, such meetings should be 
made strictly practical. The older teachers, who 
usually have the most to do with the manage- 
ment of them, should bear in mind that they are 
mainly designed to diffuse practical ideas of 
teaching, particularly among the younger mem- 
bers. Too often these meetings are made the 
arena of debate upon questions of very little 
practical importance to the teacher. I have seen 
a body of men spend an entire session of a half- 
day, in discussing a series of over-wrought reso- 
lutions, upon some topic scarcely at all connected 
with any duty of the teacher, frequently leaving 
the main question to wrangle about some point 
of order, or of " parliamentary usage " ; and after 
the resolutions were passed or rejected, as the 
case might be, — (and it was of very little conse- 
quence whether "carried" or "lost,") — the ladies 
and younger teachers, who had borne no part in 
the talk, would find it difficult to tell " wherefore 
they had come together." Nothing had been said 
or done, by which they could be aided in their 
schools. Lecturers, too, have frequently mistaken 
their aim. Ambitious to shine out as literary 
men, they have given orations instead of practi- 
cal lessons. In these meetings, it seems to me, 
nothing ostentatious, nothing far-fetched is what 
we need ; but rather the modes and experience 
of practical men. We need to come down to 
the school-room, to the every-day business of 
the teacher, and thus prepare him to do his 



TO HIS PROFESSION". 889 

Encouragement by meeting friends.— Illustration.— Professional feeling. 

work more successfully on his return to his 
duties. 

Another, and no inconsiderable advantage of 
such associations, is, that the teacher gains en- 
couragement and strength, by being thus brought 
in contact with others engaged in the same pur- 
suit. Toiling on alone, in his isolated district, 
surrounded by obstacles and discouragements, 
weighed down by care, and finding none to sym- 
pathize with him, he is almost ready to faint in 
his course, and perhaps to abandon his calling. 
At this crisis, he reads the notice for the teach- 
ers' meeting, and he resolves to go up once more 
to the gathering of his friends. From the various 
parts of the county, from the populous and 
crowded city, and from the by-ways of the 
country towns, a goodly number collect together 
and greet each other. Smile answers to smile, 
the blood courses more freely through the veins, 
the spirits, long depressed perhaps, partake of 
the general glow, and each feels that he is not 
toiling alone. He feels that a noble brotherhood 
of kindred spirits are laboring in the same field, 
under trials and discouragements similar to those 
which have oppressed him. He derives new 
strength from the sympathy of friends. 

A professional feeling is engendered, which 
will accompany him to his school-room ; and 
when he goes home, it is with renewed vigor 
and fresh aspirings to be a better man, and a 
better teacher. He labors with more confidence 



840 TEACHER'S RELATION 

Pupils work better.— Objects of Teachers' Institute. 



in himself ; and, enlightened by what he has 
seen and heard, he is far more successful than 
before. His pupils, too, respond to the new life 
they see enkindling in him, and go to their work 
more cheerfully. One difficulty after another 
vanishes, and he begins to think teaching, after 
all, is not the ivorst employment in the world, 
but that it has some flowers as well as thorns ; 
and he concludes to remain in the profession. 
This has been the history of at least one man. 
Long may many others have occasion to exer- 
cise gratitude like his, for the enjoyment of sim- 
ilar privileges. 

The Teachers' Institute may be defined as a 
normal school having a very short course of 
study. Owing to this limitation of time, instruc- 
tion must be given mainly by lecture, and must 
bear on methods and principles rather than on 
subjects. It should not be presumed that an 
Institute can make any considerable addition to 
s teacher's general scholarship ; but it may and 
should do the following things : 

1. It should make clear the nature of educa- 
tion and of instruction, and the purposes of the 
school. 

2. It should present the best current methods 
of instructing and governing. 

3. It should awaken a zeal in teaching, and 
provoke to higher attainments in scholarship. 

4. Perhaps the Institute has done its best work 
if it has led to what may be called the intel- 



TO HIS PROFESSION. 341 

Limitations.— Experience must.be truly stated. 

lectual conversion of its members ; that is, if it 
has induced a love for the vocation of the scholar. 

The Teachers' Institute is subject to serious 
limitations, such as the shortness of its term, the 
method by which the instruction must be given, 
and the too often aimless nature of the attend- 
ance ; but despite these drawbacks, there is proba- 
bly no agency now at work, which is so efficient 
in disseminating improved methods, and in rais- 
ing the general tone of educational thought. 

I ought not to leave this subject without a 
word or two of caution. 

1. Be honest. In all your intercourse with 
your fellow-teachers, be careful to use the words 
of "truth and soberness." In stating your expe- 
rience, never allow your fancy to embellish your 
facts. Of this there is great danger. The young 
are sometimes tempted to tell a good story ; but 
a deviation from the truth — always perilous and 
always wrong — may be peculiarly disastrous here. 
Experience overstated, may egregiously mislead 
the unwary inquirer after truth. Never over- 
color the picture ; it is better to err on the 
other side. 

So, likewise, in exhibiting your school to fellow- 
teachers, be strictly honest. They come to learn 
from your every-day practice, and not from a 
counterfeit ; and whenever you dress your school 
in a showy garb, to win the applause of a fellow- 
teacher, you do him a great injustice. You may 
not please your friend so much by your ordinary 



842 TEACHER'S RELATION 

"Nothing extraordinary."— Avoid imitation. 

mode, as by something assumed for the occa- 
sion ; but you may profit him far more ; and in 
the end, you lose nothing by pursuing the line 
of duty. 

I well remember, that a somewhat distin- 
guished teacher once visited my own school, who, 
on going away, expressed himself somewhat dis- 
appointed, because he did not see any thing "ex- 
traordinary" as he said, in my mode of pro- 
cedure. The truth was, nothing extraordinary 
was attempted. He saw what I wished to show 
him, an ordinary day's work ; for I had before 
that time imbibed the opinion, that a man's repu- 
tation will be more firmly established, by sustain- 
ing every day a fair mediocrity, than it ever can 
be by an attempt to outdo himself on a few special 
occasions. As the value of biographical writing 
is often very much diminished, because the writer 
has endeavored to paint his character too perfect 
to ~be human, — so these visitations will lose their 
utility, whenever, by substituting hollow preten- 
sion for sober reality, the teacher endeavors to 
exhibit such a school as he does not daily keep. 

2. Avoid servile imitation of any model. It is 
often remarked, that every man's plan is the best 
for him ; and that many besides David cara never 
fight in Saul's armor. This is generally true. All 
experience, then, should be considered, in connec- 
tion with the circumstances under which it was 
tried, never forgetting the character and genius of 
the person who relates it. What might succeed 



TO HIS PROFESSION. oio 

Adapt rather than adopt another's plans.— Avoid self-sufficiency. 

in his hand, may fail in yours ; particularly, as 
you will lack the interest of an original inventor. 

The true secret lies in listening to the views 
of all, and then in making a judicious combina- 
tion to meet your own character, and your own 
circumstances. It is often better to adjust and 
adapt the plan of another, than to adopt it. 
Servile imitation precludes thought in the teacher, 
and reduces him to a mere machine. The most 
successful teachers I have ever known, were those 
who would listen attentively to the plans and 
experience of others, and then strike out a course 
for themselves, attempting that, and that only, 
which they were confident they could successfully 
execute. 

3. Avoid undue self-sufficiency. Men usually 
cease to learn, when they think they are wise 
enough. The teacher is in danger of falling into 
this error. Moving for the most part among chil- 
dren, where his decisions are seldom questioned, 
he is very apt to attach undue importance to his 
own opinions. Such a man meets his fellows 
with much self-complacency, and is but poorly 
prepared to be profited by the views of others. 
But the teacher should never cease to be teach- 
able. There are very few men too old, or too 
wise, to learn something ; and they are the wisest, 
if not the oldest, who are willing to welcome a 
real improvement, even though it should come 
from comparative "babes and sucklings," out of 
whose mouths God has sometimes perfected praise. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTION'S. 

ON looking over the notes which I have at 
various times made of my own experience 
and observation, during twenty years of practical 
teaching, I find there are several thoughts which 
may be of some service to the young teacher, 
and which have not been introduced under any 
of the general topics of this volume. I have 
therefore thought best to introduce a special 
chapter, with the above title, where I might law- 
fully bring together, without much regard to 
method, such varied hints as may convey to 
some reader a useful lesson. Some of these 
hints will refer to faults which should be care- 
fully avoided, while others will point out some 
duties to be performed. 



SECTION L— THINGS TO BE AVOIDED. 

1. Guard against prejudice on entering a 
school. It is not always safe to rely upon first 
impressions as to character. At the opening of 
a school, perhaps fifty individuals, for the first 
time, are brought before the teacher. Some of 
them are from humble life, and, perhaps, bear 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 345 

Danger of prejudice.— Its injustice.— Why? 



upon them the marks of parental neglect. Their 
persons and their clothing may present nothing 
to attract and gratify the eye of a stranger. 
Little accustomed to society, they exhibit an 
awkward bashfulness, or an impertinent forward- 
ness, in their manner. Contrasted with these, 
others appear who have been the children of 
indulgence, and who have seen much more of 
the world. A more expensive garb attracts trie 
eye ; a more easy and familiar address, conform- 
ing to the artificial modes of society, is very 
likely to win the heart. The teacher is very 
prone to find his feelings committed in favor of 
the latter class, and against the former. But 
this is all wrong. A judgment thus hastily 
formed is extremely hazardous, — as a few days' 
acquaintance will usually show. The child of 
blunt or shy demeanor often has the truest 
heart, — a heart whose sentiments go out by the 
shortest course, — a heart that has ■ never learned 
the artificial forms of the world, because it has 
never felt the need of them. And how unjust 
to the child is a prejudice founded on the cir- 
cumstance of dress ! Must the inability or 
neglect of his parent be doubly visited on him? 
Is it not enough that he daily feels the inward 
mortification of a contrast with his more favored 
school-fellows ? Must he be painfully reminded of 
it by discovering that his teacher repels him on 
that account, and bestows his kindliest smiles upon 
those who are " the brightest and best clad " ? 



846 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Pupils not to direct their studies.— This the teacher's province. 

And yet, such unjust prejudice is common ; 
wrong and unfeeling as it is, it is too common. 
A fine dress, and a clean face, and a graceful 
manner, I know, are attractive ; but the teacher 
has to do with the mind and the heart ; — and he 
should never be deterred by any thing exterior, 
from making a diligent and patient search for 
good qualities which have their home behind the 
surface, — and he should ever possess a smile as 
cordial and a tone as parental for the neglected 
child of x^overty and ignorance, as for the more 
favored son of wealth and ease. 

2. Do not allow your pupils to direct their 
own studies. Whatever their age may be, they 
are seldom capable of doing this. It is the aim 
of the young to get over a long course of study. 
They are usually pleased to belong to higher 
classes, before they have mastered the branches 
taught in the lower. If children are suffered to 
direct their own studies, they usually make 
themselves very poor scholars. This is the bane 
of many of our select schools and academies, 
where the teacher yields this right in order to 
secure pupils and a salary. But no one, not even 
the parent, is as competent as the teacher ought 
to be, to direct in this matter. He has the best 
opportunity, daily, to fathom the pupil's attain- 
ments, and to understand his deficiencies. He 
may claim the right to direct. In case the pupil 
withstands his decision, the teacher should appeal 
to the parent, and endeavor there to sustain his 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 347 
A mistake.— An egregious evil in all schools.— Illustrated. 

point, a thing generally within his power, if, 
indeed, he is right. If the parent, too, is obsti- 
nate, and firmly insists upon the wrong course, 
the teacher may, perhaps, submit, though he 
can not submit without the consciousness that 
his province has been invaded. 

It is too frequently the case that the teacher 
at the first yields all this ground voluntarily, by 
asking the children what they wish to study. 
When he has once made them a party in this 
question, he need not wonder if they claim to be 
heard. This he should not do. He should first 
be sure that he is qualified to direct aright, and 
then, as a matter of course, proceed to do it, 
just as the physician would prescribe for the 
physical malady of such a child. The latter is 
not more the rightful duty of the physician, than 
the former is of the school-teacher. Neither has 
the power to enforce his prescription against the 
parents' consent, — but that consent may be taken 
for granted by both, till informed that it is 
withheld. 

I may here remark that in all my intercourse 
with the young, whether in the common or the 
higher school, I have found no greater evil than 
that of proceeding to the more difficult branches 
before the elementary studies have been mastered. 
It is no uncommon thing to find those who have 
" attended " to the higher mathematics — algebra, 
geometry, and the like — whose reading and writ- 
ing are wretched in the extreme, and whose 



348 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Do not attempt too many things. 

spelling is absolutely intolerable ! They have 
been pursuing quadratics, but are unable to ex- 
plain why they " carry one for every ten " ; they 
have wandered among the stars in search of 
other worlds, by the science of astronomy, with- 
out knowing the most simple points in the 
geography of our own ; they have studied loga- 
rithms and infinite series, but can not be safely 
trusted to add a column of figures or to com- 
pute the simple interest upon a common note ! 
In short, they have studied every thing, except 
what is most useful to be known in practical 
life, and have really learned — nothing ! 

Now if this evil — grievous and extensive as it 
is at present — is destined ever to be abated, it is 
to be accomplished by the instrumentality of the 
teacher, acting in his appropriate sphere, in the 
capacity of a director as to the course of study 
for the young. He must not be a man who can 
merely teach, but one who understands the high 
import of a true education, and knows how to 
prescribe the order of its progress ; one, in short, 
who will never attempt to erect a showy super- 
structure upon an insufficient foundation. 

S. Do not attempt to teach too many things. 
There is a tendency at present to introduce too 
many things into all our schools. Nothing is 
more common than to hear our public lecturers 
declare, as they become a little enthusiastic in 
any given department, that "this branch should 
at once be made a study in our common schools." 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 349 

Make no ambiguous mark upon mind.—" Mind your business." 

This is heard of almost the whole round of the 
natural sciences. But it seems to me to be dic- 
tated by over-wrought enthusiasm. Every thing 
can not* be well taught in our schools; nor should 
too much be attempted. It is the province of 
our schools — particularly our common schools — 
to afford thorough instruction in a few things, and 
to awaken a desire for more extended attain- 
ment. The instruction given should, as far as 
possible, be complete in itself, — while it should 
afford the means of making further advance- 
ment ; but that instruction which being merely 
superficial, neither itself informs the mind nor 
imparts the desire and the means of future self- 
improvement, is worse than useless ; it is posi- 
tively injurious. A few branches thoroughly 
possessed are worth more than a thousand merely 
glanced at, — and the idea of changing our com- 
mon schools to universities, where our children, 
before they pass from the years of their baby- 
hood, are to grasp the whole range of the sciences, 
is one of the most preposterous that has grown 
up even in this age of follies. The teacher, then, 
should not undertake too much: he should be 
sure that he can accomplish what he undertakes. 
The mark he makes upon the young should be 
no uncertain sign. 

4. Never attend to extraneous business in 
school hours. This is a common fault. Many 
teachers neglect their duties in school to write 
letters, or transact such other business as should 



350 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Excuses. — Dr. Franklin's remark. — An illustration. 

be done at home. This is always wrong. There 
is no time for it in any school ; for a diligent 
teacher can always find full employment even 
with a small number. Besides, he has engaged 
to devote himself to the school ; and any depart- 
ure from this is a violation of his contract. 
The children will so view it, and thus lose much 
of their respect for the teacher. Moreover, if 
they see him neglect his business for some other, 
they will be very likely to neglect theirs, and 
thus disorder will be introduced. I hold that the 
teacher is bound to devote every moment of 
school hours to active labor for the school. 

5. Avoid making excuses to visitors for the 
defects of your school. Franklin, I think, said that 
" a man who is good for making excuses, is good 
for nothing else." I have often thought of this 
as I have visited the schools of persons given to 
this failing. It is sometimes quite amusing to 
hear such a teacher keep up a sort of running 
apology for the various pupils. A class is called to 
read. The teacher remarks, "This class have but 
just commenced reading in this book." Stephen 
finishes the first paragraph, and the teacher adds, 
" Stephen has not attended school very regularly 
lately." William reads the second. "This boy," 
says the teacher, "was very backward when I 
came here — he has but just joined this class." 
Charles executes the third. "That boy has an 
impediment in his speech." Reuben follows. "It 
is almost impossible to make a good reader of 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 351 



Pity excited.—" When / came here.'''' 



Reuben ; he never seems to pay the least atten- 
tion. I have bestowed unwearied pains upon 
him." Mary takes her turn. " This girl has lost 
her book, and her father refuses to buy her an- 
other." Mary here blushes to the eyes, — for 
though she could bear his reproof, she still has 
some sense of family pride ; she bursts into tears, 
while Martha reads the next paragraph. " I have 
tried all along," says the teacher, " to make this 
girl raise her voice, but still she will almost stifle 
her words." Martha looks dejected, and the next 
in order makes an attempt. 

Now, the teacher in all this has no malicious 
design to wound the feelings of every child in 
the class, — and yet he as effectually accomplishes 
that result as if he had premeditated it. Every 
scholar is interested to read as well as possible 
in the presence of strangers ; every one makes 
the effort to do so ; yet every one is practically 
pronounced to have failed. The visitors pity the 
poor pupils for the pain they are made thus need- 
lessly to suffer, and they pity also the tucahness 
of the poor teacher, whose love of approbation has 
so blinded his own perception that he is regard- 
less of the feelings of others, and thinks of nothing 
but his own. 

This over-anxiety for the good opinion of others 
shows itself in a still less amiable light, when the 
teacher frequently makes unfavorable allusions to 
his predecessor. "When I came here" says the 
teacher, significantly, " I found them all poor read- 



352 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Meanness. — "How old are you?" — Such, arts recoil. 

ers." Or, if a little disorder occurs in school, he 
takes care to add, " I found the school in perfect 
confusion," — or, "the former teacher, as near as I 
can learn, used to allow the children to talk and 
play as much as they pleased." Now, whatever 
view we take of such a course, it is impossible to 
pronounce it any thing better than despicable 
meanness. For if the charge is true, it is by no 
means magnanimous to publish the faults of an- 
other ; and if it is untrue in whole or in part, as 
most likely it is, none but a contemptible person 
would magnify another's failings to mitigate his 
own. 

There is still another way in which this love 
of personal applause exhibits itself. I have seen 
teachers call upon their brightest scholars to re- 
cite, and then ask them to tell their age, in order 
to remind the visitor that they were very young 
to do so well ; and then insinuate that their older 
pupils could of course do much better. 

All these arts, however, recoil upon the teacher 
who uses them. A visitor of any discernment 
sees through them at once, and immediately sus- 
pects the teacher of conscious incompetency or 
willful deception. The pupils lose their respect 
for a man whom they all perceive to be acting a 
dishonorable part. I repeat, then, never attempt 
to cover the defects of your schools by making 
ridiculous excuses. 

6. Never compare one child with another. It 
is a poor way of stimulating a dull pupil to com- 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 353 

Tenderness to a dull child. — Kindness- and patience stimulate. 

pare him with a better scholar. It is the direct 
way to engender hatred in the mind of the one, 
and the most consummate self-complacency in 
the other. Not one child in a thousand can be 
publicly held up to the school as a pattern of ex- 
cellence, without becoming excessively vain ; at 
the same time, all the other scholars will be more 
or less excited to envy. Such a course is always 
unsafe ; almost always injurious. 

7. Avoid wounding the sensibilities of a dull 
child. There will always be those in every school 
who are slow to comprehend. After their class- 
mates have grasped an idea during the teacher's 
explanation, they still have the vacant stare, the 
unintelligent expression. This may be so after a 
second or a third explanation. The teacher is now 
strongly tempted to indulge in expressions of im- 
patience, if not of opprobrium. This temptation 
he should resist. Such children are to be pitied 
for their dullness ; but never to be censured for 
it. It is an unfeeling thing to sting the soul 
that is already benighted. He should cheer and 
encourage such a slow mind to greater effort, by 
the sunshine of kind looks and the warm breath 
of sympathy, rather than freeze up the feeble 
current of vivacity which yet remains there by a 
forbidding frown or a blast of reproach. A dull 
child is almost always affectionate ; and it is 
through the medium of kindness and patience 
that such a one is most effectually stimulated. 

8. Never lose your patience ivhen parents 



354 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Never get out of temper with parents.— Why ?— An incident. 

unreasonably interfere with your plans. It must 
be expected that some of the parents will wish 
to dictate to the teacher what course he shall 
pursue, at least in relation to their own children. 
This will sometimes bring them to the school- 
room, perhaps in a tone of complaint, to set the 
teacher right. Whenever a parent thus steps be- 
yond the bounds of propriety, the teacher should 
never lose his self-possession. He should always 
speak the language of courtesy, in frankness, but 
in firmness. He should reason with the parent, 
and if possible convince him, — but he should 
never insult nor abuse him. It may be well to 
propose to see him at his own house, in order to 
talk over the matter more at his leisure. I recol- 
lect once a parent sent a hasty refusal to pur- 
chase a necessary book for his son, — a refusal 
clothed in no very respectful language. I gave 
the lad a courteous note directed to his father, 
in which I intimated my desire to have an inter- 
view with him at his house at such time as he 
might appoint. In half an hour the boy came 
bounding back with the desired book, informing 
me that his father said, " he guessed he might as 
well get the book, and done with it." My inter- 
course with that parent was ever afterward of 
the most pleasant kind. A supercilious parent 
can never gain an advantage over a teacher, un- 
less he can first provoke him to impatience or 
anger. As long as the teacher is perfectly self- 
possessed he is impregnable. 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 355 

The study of the Bible.— Ride no hobbies in teaching. 



9. Never make the study of the Bible a pun- 
ishment. I have known a teacher to assign sun- 
dry passages of the Bible, condemnatory of a 
particular sin, to be committed to memory as a 
punishment. I have also known the idle scholar 
to be detained after school to study passages of 
Scripture, because he had failed to learn his 
other lessons in due time. I believe this to be 
bad policy, as well as doubtful religion. The les- 
sons that a child thus learns are always con- 
nected, in his mind, with unpleasant associations. 
His heart is not made better by truths thus 
learned. The Bible, indeed, should be studied by 
the young ; but they should be attracted to it by 
the spirit of love, rather than driven to it by the 
spirit of vindictiveness. They who suppose that 
children can be made to love the Bible by being 
thus driven to the study of it, have sadly mis- 
taken the human heart. 

10. Hide no "hobbies" in teaching. Almost 
every man, in whatever vocation, has some hobby, 
some "one idea" which he pushes forward on all 
occasions, no matter what may be the conse- 
quences. It is not strange that it is often thus 
with the teacher. If the teacher has any inde- 
pendence of mind, any originality, he will, at 
some period in life, naturally incline to try some 
experiments in teaching. Partly on account of 
the novelty of the plan, and partly on account 
of the teacher's interest in the success of his 
own measure, he finds it works well in the class 



356 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A discovery becomes a hobby— Oral instruction. 

where it was first tried ; and he rejoices that he 
has made a discovery. Teaching now possesses 
a new interest for him, and he very likely be- 
comes enthusiastic. He applies his new measure 
to other classes and loudly recommends it to 
other teachers. For a time it succeeds, and it be- 
comes his hobby. Whenever a stranger visits his 
school, he shows off his new measure. Whenever 
he attends a teachers' meeting, he describes it, 
and perhaps presents a class of his pupils to 
verify its excellence. He abandons his old and 
long-tried plans, and persists in the new one. 
By and by the novelty has worn away, and his 
pupils become dull under its operation, and rea- 
son suggests that a return to the former methods 
would be advisable. Still, because it is his inven- 
tion, he persists. Others try the experiment. 
Some succeed ; some fail. Some of them by a 
public speech commit themselves to it, and then 
persist in it to preserve their consistency. In this 
way a great many objectionable modes of teach- 
ing have gained currency and still hold their 
sway in many of our schools. 

Among these I might mention concert recita- 
tion, and oral instruction when made a substi- 
tute for study. Of the origin and tendency of 
the former, I have spoken more at length in the 
chapter on " Conducting Recitations." Of the 
latter, a word or two may be said in this place. 

It was found years ago, in the earlier at- 
tempts to teach the blind, that they made very 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 357 

Origin of the oral mania.— Baby-talk I— Great learning ! 

rapid strides in acquiring knowledge through the 
sole medium of oral instruction. As might have 
been foreseen, they became intensely interested 
in hearing about things which had surrounded 
them all their days, but which they had never 
seen. Shut in as they were from the privilege of 
sight, there was nothing to distract their atten- 
tion from whatever was communicated to them 
through the sense of hearing ; and as they had 
been blind from their birth, this discipline of at- 
tention had been going on from infancy. Under 
these circumstances, their progress in knowledge 
by mere oral teaching was astonishing. This was 
all well. But soon, some one conceived the idea 
of substituting oral instruction for study among 
seeing children. Immediately there was an oral 
mania. Infant schools grew up in every vil- 
lage, — infant school manuals were prepared, filled 
with scientific baby-tall-, for the use of the 
worthy dames who were to drive the hobby, and 
the nineteenth century bade fair to do more 
toward lighting up the fires of science than all 
time before had accomplished ! It was truly 
wonderful, for a time, to listen to the learned 
volubility of these same infant schools. The 
wonders of astronomy, chemistry, botany, and 
zoology, with the terms of Cuvier's classification, 
and a thousand other things, were all detailed 
with astonishing familiarity by pupils under five 
years of age ! Some eminent teachers sagely 
took the hint and adopted the oral system with 



S58 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Extended to higher classes. — A royal road !— Eyes are useless orbs ! 

their older classes. The sciences were taught by 
lectures. The pupils of this happy day had 
nothing to do but to sit and receive. To be 
sure, sometimes, they would become inattentive, 
and it would be discovered by their teachers that 
they did not retain quite all that was told to 
them. This, however, was no fault of the system, 
it was urged ; the system was well enough, but 
unfortunately, the pupils had eyes, and their 
attention was frequently diverted by the unlucky 
use of these worthless organs. A royal road, sure 
enough, was found to the temple of science, too 
long beyond mortal reach, by reason of the 
rugged footpath over which the student was 
compelled to climb. Happy, glorious day ! No 
more must toil and thought be the price of suc- 
cess ! No more must the midnight oil be con- 
sumed, and the brain be puzzled, in search of 
the wisdom of ages ! No more must the eyes be 
pained — (they are hereafter to be considered en- 
cumbrances) — in searching the classic page ; the 
ear is to be the easy inlet to the soul. * * * 



Such was the hobby of 1829 to 1831 in our 
own country. During sixteen years past, those 
babes of the infant schools have grown into 
"young men and maidens," in no way distin- 
guished, after all, unless they have since achieved 
distinction by actual study. The pupils of those 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 359 



God wiser than men.— Other hobbies.— Patent methods. 

higher schools have obtained whatever they now 
value in their education, mainly by the use of 
their eyes, notwithstanding at one time their 
worthy guides would have almost deemed it a 
blessing to have had their eyes put out. It has 
been found that God was indeed wise in the 
bestowment of sight, — and some, at least, have 
acknowledged that a method that is well suited 
to the instruction of those who are blind, be- 
cause it is the only possible one for them, may 
not be the best for those who can see. At the 
present time, the sentiment begins to prevail, 
that oral instruction can never supply the place of 
study ; that the lecturing, or " pouring-in process," 
can not long secure the attention ; that the mind, 
by merely receiving, gains no vigor of its own ; 
and that scholars must be made, if made at all, 
mainly by their own exertions in the use of books. 
It would be easy to mention other examples 
of hobbies which have been ridden by teachers 
very much to the injury of their schools. Those 
already given may, however, suffice for the pur- 
pose of illustration. Let it be remembered, then, 
that no one method of instruction comprises all 
the excellences and avoids all the defects of 
good teaching ; and that he is the wisest teacher 
who introduces a .judicious variety into his modes 
of instruction, profiting by the suggestions of 
others, but relying mainly upon his own careful 
observation, eschewing all "patent methods," and 
never losing his common sense. 



860 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Higher branches.— Things to be done.— The scholars' friend. 

Under the head of hobbies, I may add one 
other remark. Many teachers have some favorite 
branch of study, in which, because they excel, 
they take special delight. One man is a good 
mathematician, another an expert accountant, a 
third a skillful grammarian. Now the danger is, 
that the favorite branch of study may become 
the hobby, — and that the other branches will be 
neglected. This is, indeed, not unfrequently the 
case. 

Again, some teachers are more interested in 
the higher branches generally, because they were 
the last pursued in their college course, or for 
some other reason. They therefore neglect the 
lower studies, to the great detriment of the youth 
under their charge. Against all such partial views, 
the teacher should take great pains to guard 
himself. He may fall unconsciously and almost 
imperceptibly into some of these errors. Let me 
add the caution, then, — never allow your par- 
tiality for one study, or a class of studies, to 
divert your attention from all those other branches 
which are necessary to constitute a good edu- 
cation. 

It is surely to the discredit of teachers that 
they are so readily "tossed to and fro, and car- 
ried about with every wind of doctrine, by the 
slight of men, and cunning craftiness." Growth 
or evolution is entirely consistent with modera- 
tion and stability.. To know what we should 
grow into, we must trace our route into the 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 361 



Spasmodic efforts at reform.— 'Their results. 



future by the light of educational science, and 
that there may be perfect continuity of growth, 
we must know the past and the present of edu- 
cation. We will gain sureness and stabilit}^ in 
the formation of our opinions by recollecting 
that a course of practice that has had the long 
sanction of the wise and the good is likely to 
have a large measure of truth in it ; and that 
"the suppression of every error is commonly fol- 
lowed by a temporary ascendency of the contrary 
one." {Spencer.) Every decade has its educa- 
tional epidemic made possible by shallow think- 
ing and a chronic discontent with things as they 
are. These spasmodic efforts at reform are the 
source of some good and much evil. They call 
attention to imperfections ; but by a gross exag- 
geration of defects they destroy public faith in 
what is good, and by the show of false lights 
betray the cause of substantial progress. "Prog- 
ress,"' says the Dictionnairc de Pedagogic, "is 
not a force that acts spasmodically, but is a 
logical and graduated evolution, in which the 
idea of to-day is connected with that of yester- 
day, as the latter is to a still more remote past." 

SECTION II.— THINGS TO BE PERFORMED. 

I. Convince your scholars by your conduct 
that you are their friend. It is all-important 
that you should gain complete ascendency over 
the minds of your pupils. In no way is this 



362 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Delightful task.— Love for scholars,— for teaching,— to be felt. 

point so successfully gained as by leading them 
to feel that you are their true friend. "When 
they feel this, all their sentiments of generosity, 
gratitude, and love, conspire to lead them to 
render cheerful obedience to your wishes. Govern- 
ment then becomes easy ; instruction is no longer 
irksome ; and you can most cordially respond to 
the poet, in that beautiful sentiment too seldom 
fully realized : — 

" Delightful task I to rear the tender thought, 
And teach the young idea how to shoot, 
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, 
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix 
The generous purpose in the glowing breast." 

But effectually to convince them that you are 
thus their friend, is not the work of a moment. 
Words alone can never do it. You may make 
professions of interest in them, but it is all to 
no purpose. Your actions, your looks, your whole 
spirit must show it. In order thus to exhibit it, 
you must feel a deep, an all-pervading interest 
in the welfare of every child. You must love 
your profession, and you must love — sincerely 
love — those whom you are called to teach. If 
you do not love the work of teaching, and can 
not bring yourself to love the children of your 
charge, you may not expect success. It was long 
ago declared that 

"Love only is the loan for love," — 

and this is specially true with the love of chil- 
dren. Their souls spontaneously go out after 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 363 

Care of school-house.— Resist the beginnings. 

those who love them. Strive, then, to gain this 
point with them, not by empty pretensions, 
always quickly read and as quickly despised by 
the young ; but by that full, frank, cordial ex- 
pression of kindness in your manner toward 
them, which, being based upon deep principle in 
yourself, is sure at once to win their affection, 
and their ready compliance with all your reason- 
able requisitions. 

II. Take special care that the school-house and 
its appendages are kept in good order. This is a 
part of every teacher's duty. He should have an 
eye that is constantly on the alert to perceive the 
smallest beginnings of injury to any part of the 
premises. It is often painful to see a new school- 
house, that has with much care and expense been 
put in perfect order, very soon cut and otherwise 
disfigured by the pupils, — the glass broken, the 
ceiling soiled, the desks and floors stained with 
ink, and every thing bearing the marks of youth- 
ful destructiveness. The teacher should be held 
accountable for such results, for he can by proper 
vigilance prevent them. 

Some of his first lessons to his pupils should 
be upon the subject of practical neatness, in re- 
gard to every thing that pertains to the school. 
They should be impressed with the belief that he 
holds neatness as a cardinal virtue. Daily should 
he watch to discover the first violation of pro- 
priety upon the premises. This first violation 
should be promptly met. There is great wisdom 



364 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Care of books, desks, etc.— Eights of property. 

in the adage which enjoins us to "resist the be- 
ginnings." 

So, too, he should exercise an oversight of the 
books belonging to the pupils. Many books are 
speedily destroyed by children for the want of a 
little care of the teacher, — probably more than 
are worn out by use. He should also occasionally 
inspect the desks, with a view to promote a com- 
mendable neatness there. The teacher has an 
undoubted right to inspect any part of the premi- 
ses, — but by a little adroitness he can interest the 
children in a reform of this kind, and then they 
will desire that he should witness their care- 
fulness. 

I may add further, that the children should not 
only be required to respect the school-house and 
its appendages, but they should also be taught to 
regard the sacredness of all property, either pub- 
lic or private. The neighboring garden or or- 
chard should be held to be inviolable. The 
teacher may not have the authority to compel 
compliance with his direction or advice beyond 
school-hours ; but he should endeavor to exercise 
a moral influence in the school which will be 
more powerful even than compulsion. So in 
regard to public buildings, such as churches and 
court-houses ; and all public grounds, — as parks, 
commons, and cemeteries, — the teacher should 
inculcate not only the duty to abstain from in- 
juring them, but a commendable desire to see 
them improved and beautified. In America, it is 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 365 

American destructiveness.— General reformation.— Illustration. 

remarked by foreigners, there is a strange ten- 
dency to destructiveness. In our public buildings 
the walls are usually disfigured by names and 
drawings ; and even our cemeteries do not escape 
the violence of the knives of visitors, the trees 
being cut and marked with names, and the 
flowers plucked off and carried away. It is to be 
hoped that our teachers will so exercise a reform- 
ing influence, that the next generation shall ex- 
ercise a higher principle, as well as a better taste, 
in all these matters, which, small as they are, 
make up no mean part of the manners and mor- 
als of a people. 

III. When scholars do wrong, it is sometimes 
best to withhold immediate reproof, but to describe 
a similar case in general instruction. This is 
one of the most effectual modes of curing the 
evil in the wrong-doer himself. It, moreover, 
gives the teacher a valuable text for a lesson on 
morals before the whole school. Care should gen- 
erally be taken not to lead the school to suspect 
the individual in your mind, while at the same 
time the parable should so fit the case, as to pre- 
clude the necessity of saying to the offender, as 
Nathan did to David : " Thou art the man." 

A case will illustrate this. I recollect once to 
have found, among a large number of composi- 
tions presented by a class, one that I knew to 
have been copied. No notice was taken of it at 
the time ; but some days afterward, a case was 
described to the class, resembling the one that 



366 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A confession.— Accuracy. 

had actually occurred. After exciting considera- 
ble interest in the case, they were told that such 
a thing had happened among their own number : 
that I did not choose to expose the individual ; 
but, if any of them thought it would be honor- 
able for them to confess such an offense to me 
in case they had committed it, they might seek 
a private opportunity to do so. In less than 
twenty-four hours no less than four made such a 
confession, detailing freely the extent and the 
circumstances of their offending. In this way 
four were reformed, where by direct reproof only 
one could have been reached. It was a frank, 
not a forced confession ; and I was thus easily 
made to know the extent of this sin in the school. 
By this simple expedient, I have reason to believe, 
plagiarism was effectually eradicated, for that 
term at least, in the whole class, and that too 
without the loss of any pupil's good-will. 

It is generally wiser to endeavor to reach the 
evil in its whole extent, than to expend one's 
strength upon a single instance of wrong-doing. 
The conscience of the whole school may some- 
times be profitably aroused, while the particular 
individual is quite as effectively corrected as he 
would be by a direct reproof. 

IV. Be accurate. This is necessary in order to 
secure the respect of your pupils. What the 
teacher professes to know he should be sure of. 
Approximations . to the truth are not enough to 
satisfy the young mind. Whenever a teacher 






MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 367 

Certain knowledge. — Prof. Olmsted. 



makes a blunder by stating what is not true in 
regard to any fact or principle in science, any 
event in history, or any item of statistics, he 
lowers himself very much in the estimation of 
all those who are capable of detecting his error. 
If he does not know, he may frankly say so, and 
incur no just censure, provided the point be one 
about which he has not had the opportunity to 
gain the requisite information. But when he 
attempts to speak with the authority of a teacher, 
he "should know that whereof he affirms." "The 
character of the teacher," says Professor Olmsted, 
"is sullied by frequent mistakes, like that of a 
book-keeper or banker. It is surprising to see 
how soon even the youngest learner will lose his 
confidence and respect for his teacher, when he 
has detected in him occasional mistakes. At 
every such discovery he rises in his own estima- 
tion, and the teacher proportionally sinks. The 
very character of the pupil is injured by such an 
incident. He rapidly loses the docility and mod- 
esty so essential to the scholar, and becomes up- 
lifted with pride and self-importance." The super- 
ciliousness thus induced in the pupils, becomes 
a sore vexation to the teacher. He finds that 
his pupils are watching for his halting, — and he 
frequently fails, from this very circumstance, to 
do as well as he might. I know of no more piti- 
able condition on earth than that of a teacher, 
who is attempting to teach what he does not 
fully understand, while he is conscious that his 



368 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A pleasant countenance.— A description. 

pupils doubt his ability, from a frequent detec- 
tion of his mistakes. 

V. Cultivate a pleasant countenance. Frowns 
and scowls always sit with ill grace upon the 
teacher's brow. I know that the trials and per- 
plexities incident to his daily life are eminently 
fitted "to chafe his mood" and to provoke his 
impatience. I know, too, that protracted confine- 
ment from the pure air and the bright sunlight, 
will almost necessarily render the nervous system 
morbidly sensitive, and the temper of course ex- 
tremely irritable. The outward exponent of all 
this is a dejected, and perhaps an angry, counte- 
nance. The eyebrows are drawn up so that the 
forehead is deeply and prematurely furrowed, 
while the angles of the mouth are suffered to drop 
downward, as if in token of utter despair. By 
and by the roguishness of some unlucky urchin 
disturbs the current of his thoughts, — and sud- 
denly the brow is firmly knitted with transverse 
channels, the nostrils are distended, the jaws are 
firmly closed, the lips are compressed, the cheeks 
are flushed, and the eyes almost emit sparks from 
the pent-up fire within him. For the next half- 
hour he frowns on all about him. The children, 
at first, are awed by such a threatening aspect, — 
but soon they become accustomed to it, and 
the terrible very naturally gives place to the 
ridiculous. 

No man has a moral right to render those un- 
comfortable who surround him, by habitually 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 309 

Sympathy between the heart and the countenance. 

covering his face with the looks of discontent and 
moroseness. It is peculiarly wrong for the teacher 
to do it. It is for him to present an example of 
self-government under all circumstances, so that 
he can consistently enforce the duty of self-con- 
trol upon the young. It is for him to show him- 
self a man of principle, of benevolence, of cheerful 
devotion to his duty, however full of trials that 
duty may be ; and in no way can he do this more 
effectually than by an amiable and engaging 
countenance. A peevish, frowning teacher is very 
likely to produce petulance and sullenness in his 
pupils ; while a cordial smile, like the genial beam 
of the spring-day sun, not only sheds a welcome 
light on all around, but it imparts a blessed heat, 
which penetrates the frigidity of the heart, dis- 
sipates the cheerless mists that hover there, 
and warms the generous affections into life and 
beauty. 

We are so constituted that the inward and the 
outward sympathize with each other. Solomon 
says, "a merry heart maketh a cheerful counte- 
nance," — and I may venture to add, and with 
almost as much truth, a cheerful countenance 
maketh a merry heart. An honest attempt to 
bless others with the sight of a countenance that 
is expressive of content and patience, is an act 
so praiseworthy in itself, that it will never go 
unrewarded. The gratifying response which such 
a countenance is sure to call forth from others, 
brings with it a rich revenue of inward enjoy- 



370 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A question.— Yes. — Carlyle.— Means recommended. 

ment. He, therefore, who habitually bears about 
with him a sad or an angry countenance, while 
he constantly impairs the happiness of others, 
lacks at the same time an important instrumen- 
tality for securing his own. 

But the question will arise, — can a man gain 
such ascendency over himself as to control the 
expression of his countenance? I answer, with- 
out hesitation, yes. " Whatever ought to be done, 
can be done." It is not perfectly easy to do it, 
especially for the teacher. Still, self-control — full, 
complete self-control — is his appropriate duty as 
well as privilege. He must, as Carlyle quaintly 
enjoins, " learn to devour the chagrins of his lot." 
He must calculate beforehand that every day will 
bring its cares and its trials ; but he should daily 
resolve that they shall never take him by surprise, 
nor betray him into sudden impatience. Each 
morning, as he walks to the scene of his labors, 
he should fortify himself against sudden anger or 
habitual moroseness on this wise : " No doubt this 
day some untoward occurrence will transpire, cal- 
culated to try my patience and to provoke me to 
fretful words and angry looks. All my past expe- 
rience leads me to expect this. But this day I 
will try to resist the temptation to this weakness. 
I will try to be self-possessed. If any child is 
vicious, or fretful, or dull, or even impudent, I 
will endeavor to show that I can command my- 
self. If I feel some angry passion enkindling 
within me, I will stop and think, and I will en- 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 371 

I'll try.— A victory.— Art of illustrating,— illustrated. 

deavor to smile before I speak. If I can to-day 
gain the victory over impatience, and can main- 
tain an even and cheerful temper, and express it 
constantly in my countenance, it will be easier 
to do it to-morrow. At all events, Til try. 11 

Taking hold thus in earnest, any man may 
soon be his own master. He can gain the vic- 
tory. If he can do it, he ought to do it. Hence 
I urge it as a duty. Nor is it merely a duty. 
It is a high privilege. A complete victory for a 
single day will bring its own reward. A man 
who feels that he has risen above his temptation, 
can return to his rest with a light and happy 
heart. Sleep to him will be sweet, and he will 
arise on the morrow with renewed strength for 
the fresh conflict, — and in the moral as well as 
in the literal warfare, every contest which ends 
in victory gives additional strength to the victor, 
while it weakens and disheartens his enemy. 

VI. Study to acquire the art of aptly illustrat- 
ing a difficult subject. Some teachers content 
themselves with answering in the precise lan- 
guage of the book, whenever a question for 
information is propounded. This, however, is by 
no means sufficient, even when the language of 
the book is strictly accurate ; much less, when 
the language is so vague as to convey no definite 
idea to the mind, either of the learner or the 
teacher. On the other hand, a man who is apt 
to teach, will devise some ingenious method of 
enlightening the mind of his pupil, so that he 



372 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTION'S. 

Lesson in philosophy. — Media. 

shall lay hold of the idea as with a manly grasp, 
and make it his own forever. 

This point will, perhaps, be best illustrated by 
an example. A young man was employed to take 
charge of a school for a few days during a tem- 
porary illness of the regular instructor. He was a 
good scholar, as the world would say, and was 
really desirous to answer the expectation of his 
employers. After the regular teacher had so far 
recovered his health as to be able to leave his 
room, he walked one pleasant day to the school, 
to see what success attended the labors of the 
new incumbent. A class was reciting in natural 
philosophy. The subject under consideration 
was — the obstacles which impede the motion of 
machinery. The attraction of gravity, as one of 
these, was pretty easily disposed of ; for the 
class had before been instructed on that point. 
Friction came next. Here, too, the pupils, hav- 
ing had some practical experience of their own, 
in dragging their sleds, in skating, or perhaps in 
turning a grindstone, found no great difficulty. 
The book spoke a language sufficiently clear to 
be understood. Next came the "resistance of 
the various media," to use the language of the 
text-book. "Yes," said the teacher, as one of 
the pupils gravely quoted this language, "that 
has no inconsiderable effect." 

"The 'resistance of the various media'?" — 
repeated one of the boys inquiringly, "I do not 
know as I understand what media means." 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 373 

A puzzle.— Further doubts.— An interposition. 

" A medium is that in which *a body moves," 
was the ready reply which the teacher read from 
the book. 

Pupil. A medium f 

Teacher. Yes ; we say medium when we 
mean but one, and media when we mean more 
than one. 

Pupil. When we mean but one? 

Teacher. Yes ; medium is singular — media is 
plural. 

After this discussion, which began in philoso- 
phy but ended in grammar, the teacher was 
about to proceed to the next question of the 
book. But the scholar was not yet satisfied, and 
he ventured to press his inquiries a little further. 

Pupil. Is this room a medium? 

Teacher. This room ? 

Pupil. Yes, sir ; you said that a medium was 
"that in which anybody moves," and we all 
move in this room. 

Teacher. Yes, but medium does not mean a 
room ; it is the substance in which a body 
moves. 

Here the lad looked perplexed and unsatisfied. 
He had no clear idea of the meaning of this new 
term. The teacher looked at his watch, and then 
glanced at the remaining pages of the lesson, 
and seemed impatient to proceed, — so the pupil 
forbore to inquire further. 

The regular teacher, who had listened to the 
discussion with no ordinary interest, both because 



374 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A smile. — Light breaks in. 

he admired the inquisitiveness of the boy, and 
because he was curious to discover how far the 
new incumbent possessed the power of illustra- 
tion, here interposed. 

"John," — taking his watch in his hand — 
"would this watch continue to go, if I should 
drop it into a pail of water?" 

" I should think it would not long," said John, 
after a little reflection. 

" Why not ? " said his teacher, as he opened 
his watch. 

"Because the water would get around the 
wheels of the watch and stop it, I should think," 
said John. 

"How would it be if I should drop it into a 
quart of molasses ? " 

The boys laughed. 

"Or into a barrel of tar?" 

The boys still smiled. 

" Suppose I should force it, while open, into a 
quantity of lard." 

Here the boys laughed heartily, while John 
said, "the watch would not go in any of these 
articles." 

"Articles?" said his teacher, "why not say 
media ? " 

John's eye glistened as he caught the idea. 
"O, I understand it now." 

His teacher then said, that many machines 
worked in air, — then the air was the medium. 
A fish swims in water, — water is his medium. 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 375 

The class proceed. — The difference. -■Study expedients. 

A fish could hardly swim in molasses or tar. 
"Now," inquired he, "why not?" 

"Because of the resistance of the medium," 
said John, with a look of satisfaction. 

"Now why will the watch go in air and not 
in water ? " 

"Because the water is more dense," said John 
promptly. 

" Then upon what does the resistance of a 
medium depend ? " 

Here the new teacher interposed, and said that 
was the next question in the book, and he was 
just going to ask it himself. The regular teacher 
put his watch into his pocket and became a 
spectator again, and the lesson proceeded with 
unwonted vivacity. The difference between these 
two teachers mainly consisted in the fact, that 
one had the ingenuity to devise an expedient to 
meet a difficulty whenever occasion required, — 
the other had not. 

Now in order to teach well, a man should 
diligently seek for expedients. He should en- 
deavor to foresee the very points where the 
learner will stumble, and provide himself with 
the means of rendering timely aid. If an object 
can not be described in words, let it be compared 
with what it resembles, or with what it contrasts. 
If it be an object of sense, and words and com- 
parisons fail to describe it, — in the absence of 
apparatus to represent it, let the teacher spring 
to the blackboard and execute a hasty drawing 



376 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

A moral impression.-^Set lessons not useful.— The fit occasion. 

of it. In this way the construction or the work- 
ing of a machine, the form of a bone or the 
action of a joint, the shape of a town or the 
plan of a building, — in short, almost every sub- 
ject that involves the relation of form, size, pro- 
portion, quantity, or number, will admit of visible 
illustration. He, then, is the successful teacher 
who is able at the moment to seize upon the 
best expedient, and render it subservient to his 
purpose. 

VII. Take advantage of unusual occurrences 
to make a moral or religious impression. In a 
former chapter I have urged it as a part of the 
teacher's work, to cultivate and strengthen both 
the moral sentiments and the religious feelings 
of the members of his school. This is not most 
effectually done by a formal mode of speaking 
to them on these subjects. If a particular hour 
is set apart for formal lectures on their duty to 
their fellow-men and their obligations to God, 
they are very apt to fortify their sensibilities 
against the most faithful appeals, and thus ren- 
der them powerless. The wise teacher will watch 
for the fit opportunity, and, just at the moment 
when the heart is prepared by some suitable 
occurrence, — when by some exhibition of the 
Creator's power it is awed into reverence, or 
softened into submission ; or by some display of 
his goodness it is warmed into gratitude, or ani- 
mated with delight, — with a few words, season- 
ably and "fitly spoken," he fixes the impression 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 377 

Example I.— A thunder-storm. 

forever. Speaking at the right time, every ear 
listens, and every heart feels. 

Perhaps many of my readers can revert to 
some season in their childhood, endeared to them 
by a precious recollection of golden words thus 
opportunely uttered, — words fraught with truth 
which in after-life has had an unspeakable influ- 
ence in the formation of their character. One 
or two examples connected with my own expe- 
rience may be presented, more fully to illus- 
trate my meaning ; while at the same time they 
may afford, it is hoped, some valuable hints for 
the encouragement and guidance of such young 
teachers, as desire in this way to make them- 
selves the instruments of lasting benefit to the 
young. 

Example I. I can never forget — nor would I 
if I could — a lesson impressed upon my own 
youthful mind, conveying the truth that we are 
constantly dependent upon our Heavenly Father 
for protection. In a plain country school-house, 
some twenty-five children, including myself, were 
assembled Avith our teacher on the afternoon of 
a summer's day. We had been as happy and as 
thoughtless as the sportive lambs that cropped 
the clover of the neighboring hill-side. Engrossed 
with study or play, — for at this distance of time 
it is impossible to tell which, — we had not noticed 
the low rumbling of the distant thunder, till a 
sudden flash of lightning arrested our attention. 
Immediately the sun was veiled by the cloud, 



378 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Confusion.— Alarm.— Teacher's self-possession. 

and a corresponding gloom settled upon every 
face within. The elder girls, with the charac- 
teristic thoughtfulness of woman, hastily inquired 
whether they should not make the attempt to 
lead their younger brothers and sisters to the 
paternal roof before the bursting of the storm. 
For a moment our little community was thrown 
into utter confusion. The teacher stepped hastily 
to the door, to survey more perfectly the aspect 
of the western heavens. Immediately returning, 
he signified to the children that there would not 
be time for them to reach their homes before the 
tempest would be upon them. Oppressed with 
dread, — for it is no uncommon thing for children 
in the country to be terrified by lightning, — some 
of the youngest of us clung to our older brothers 
or sisters, while others, being the sole represent- 
atives of their family in the school, for the first 
time felt their utter loneliness in the midst of 
strangers, and gave utterance to their feelings in 
audible sighs or unequivocal sobs. 

The teacher, meanwhile, with an exemplary 
calmness and self-possession, closed the windows 
and the doors, and then seated himself quite near 
the younger pupils, to await the result. The thick 
darkness gathered about us, as if to make the 
glare of the lightning, by contrast, more startling 
to our vision ; while the loud thunder almost in- 
stantly followed, as it were the voice of G-od. 
The wind howled through the branches of a ven- 
erable tree near by, bending its sturdy trunk, and 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 379 

A fearful tempest. — Awful pause. — Teacher's words. 

threatening to break asunder the cords which 
bound it to its mother earth. An angry gust 
assailed the humble building where we were shel- 
tered ; it roared down the capacious chimney, 
violently closed a shutter that lacked a fastening, 
breaking the glass by its concussion, and almost 
forced in the frail window-sashes on the westerly 
side of the room. Quicker and more wild the 
lightnings glared — flash after flash — as if the 
heavens were on fire ; louder and nearer the 
thunder broke above our heads, while the in- 
mates of the room, save the teacher, were pale 
with terror. 

At this moment there was a sudden cessation 
of the war of elements, — a hush — almost a pro- 
phetic pause ! It was that brief interval which 
precedes the falling torrent. A dread stillness 
reigned within the room. Every heart beat hur- 
riedly, and every countenance told the consterna- 
tion that was reigning within. It was an awful 
moment ! 

With a calm voice, breathing a subdued and 
confiding spirit, the teacher improved this oppor- 
tunity to impress upon our young minds a great 
truth. " Fear not, children," said he, " it is your 
Heaventy Father that sends the storm as well as 
the sunshine and the gentle breeze. You have 
been just as much in his power all day, as you 
are at this moment. He has been as near you, 
supporting you, supplying you with breath, with 
life, all through the pleasant morning ; but then 



380 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Rain. — Sunshine. — Bright faces. .1 

you did not see him. He is just as able to pro- 
tect you now, for 'not a sparrow falls to the 
ground without his notice,' — and he ruleth the 
storm and 'rideth upon the wings of the wind.' 
We should ever feel willing to trust him ; for 
he is ever able to grant us deliverance from all 
dangers which threaten us. God is here now to 
protect us." 

Just as he had finished these words the rain 
began to fall. First the drops were few and scat- 
tered ; but soon the windows of heaven were 
opened, and the thirsty ground was abundantly 
satisfied. The sound of the thunder became 
fainter and fainter as the cloud passed away ; the 
sun burst out again in renewed splendor ; the 
full drops glittered in his beams upon the grass ; 
the birds began their songs ; the rainbow spanned 
the eastern hills ; and our hearts, taught by the 
timely instructions of a good man, began to ex- 
pand with eager gratitude for our preservation by 
the hand of our Heavenly Father. 

The remainder of the afternoon passed happily 
away ; and when our books were laid aside, and 
we were ready to burst out of the room to enjoy 
the refreshing air and participate in the general 
joy, the teacher, taking the Bible from the desk, 
asked us to remain quiet a moment, while he 
would read a few words that he hoped we should 
never forget. 

The passage was the following, from the 65 th 
Psalm : — 






MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 381 

The Bible speaks.— Words fitly spoken.— The effect. 

By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of 
our salvation ; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, 
and of them that are afar off upon the sea. "Which by his strength 
setteth fast the mountains ; being girded with power : which stilleth 
the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the 
people. 

They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy 
tokens : thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to 
rejoice. 

Thou visitest the earth and waterest it : thou greatly enrichest 
it with the river of God, which is full of water : thou preparest them 
corn, when thou hast so provided for it. 

Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the 
furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the 
springing thereof. 

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness ; and thy paths drop 
fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness : and the little 
hills rejoice on every side. 

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered 
over with corn ; they shout for joy, they also sing. 



After closing the book, the teacher said, "Go 
out now, children, and witness how perfectly 
these words have been fulfilled toward us this 
afternoon, — and from this day's mercies, learn 
hereafter to trust God as confidently in the 
storm, when he displays his power by his out- 
ward 'tokens,' as when he kindly smiles upon 
you in the beams of the glorious sun, or gently 
breathes upon you in the morning breeze." 

We went forth bounding in gladness and 
gratitude, and saw the " outgoings of the evening 
to rejoice," — "the pastures clothed with flocks," 
— "the valleys covered over with corn," — "the 
little hills rejoicing on every side " ; — we heard 
also the general shout for joy, — and we felt as 
we never before had felt, a deep, thorough, 
abiding conviction of the truth that God is 



382 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 

Blessed memories.— Example H.— A dark day. 

our father and our friend ; the G-od of our sal- 
vation. 

I know not how soon these impressions faded 
from the minds of the other children, — but for 
myself I can say, that from that time to the 
present, whenever I have been exposed to ap- 
parent danger from the impending tempest, the 
warring elements, or the ravages of disease, the 
teachings of that hour have always revived in 
my mind to soothe my troubled spirit, and to 
re-assure my faith and confidence in the presence 
of an all-sufficient and merciful Preserver. A 
thousand times have I devoutly blessed the 
memory of that faithful teacher, for having so 
early and so happily turned my thoughts upward 
to Him, in whom "we live, and move, and have 
our being." 

Example II. It was in the afternoon of a 
gloomy day in the latter part of November, when 
the pupils, consisting of some fifty boys, belong- 
ing to a school in a pleasant sea-port town in 
New England, were told by their teacher, a few 
minutes before the usual hour, that they might 
lay aside their studies, and prepare for dismis- 
sion. During the early part of the day there 
had been one of those violent south-east rain 
storms, so common upon the sea-coast at that 
season of the year. It is well known to the 
observing mariner, that a storm from the south- 
east never continues beyond twelve or fifteen 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 383 

Lull of the storm. — Change of wind.— Early dismission. 

hours ; and when the violence of the storm 
abates, it is a common remark of the sailor, that 
"the north-wester is not long in debt to the 
south-easter." Previous to this change of wind, 
however, there is what is expressively termed 
the " lull of the storm" — a period when the rain 
ceases to fall, the wind dies away to a perfect 
calm, the barometer is suddenly depressed, the 
clouds hover almost upon the face of the earth, 
shutting out the light of the sun, and causing a 
cheerless damp to settle upon every thing ter- 
restrial, and a dreary gloom to enshroud the 
mind itself. When the wind changes, these clouds 
are not gradually dissolved and broken up, so 
that the eye can catch transient glimpses of the 
blue sky beyond, as after a snow-storm in winter ; 
but the dark drapery is suddenly lifted up, as if 
by an unseen hand, and the western sky, from 
the horizon upward, is left more bright and 
more charming than ever, to refresh the eye and 
reanimate the soul. 

It was such a day, as before remarked, when 
the pupils of this school — partly because of the 
darkness in the school-room, and partly because 
of their protracted confinement within a close 
apartment during a gloomy afternoon — were, a 
little earlier than usual, about to be dismissed. 
The pupils all seemed to welcome the happy 
release that awaited them, — and in their eager- 
ness to escape from confinement, they very natu- 
rally neglected to observe their accustomed regard 



384 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS, 

Impatience.— Light breaks in.— The "garment of praise. "—Song. 

for quiet and order in laying aside their books. 
It was, however, a fixed habit with the teacher, 
never to give the signal for leaving the room 
till all the pupils had taken the proper attitude for 
passing out with regularity, and then had com- 
posed themselves to perfect silence. On this occa- 
sion, perhaps two minutes passed away while the 
boys were gradually, almost impatiently, bringing 
themselves to a compliance with this rule of the 
teacher. 

During this interval of waiting, the cloud, 
unperceived by the teacher, had been slowly 
raised up from the western horizon, just in time 
to allow the setting sun to bestow a farewell 
glance upon the sorrowing world at his leave- 
taking. Through the Venetian blinds that 
guarded the windows toward the west, the celes- 
tial light gleamed athwart the apartment, and 
painted the opposite wall, in front of the pupils, 
with streaks of burnished gold ! In an instant 
every countenance was changed. A smile now 
joyously played, where before sadness and dis- 
content had held their moody reign. The teacher 
was reminded, by all these circumstances, of the 
beautiful language of the prophet, which promised 
the gift of "the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness." What could be more appropriate 
on this occasion than a song of praise ? With- 
out speaking a single word, the teacher com- 
menced one of the little songs already familiar 
to the whole school : — 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 385 

Singing with the spirit.— An impression.— God is good. 

Lo, the heavens are breaking, 

Pure and bright above; 
Life and light awaking, 

Murmur-OM is love. 

God is love. 

Round yon pine-clad mountain, 

Elows a golden flood ; 
Hear the sparkling fountain 

"Whisper — God is good. 

God is good. 

Wake, my heart, and springing, 

Spread thy wings above, — 
Soaring still and singing, 

God is ever good. 

God is good. 

Instantly every voice that had ever sung, now 
uttered heartfelt praise. The attendant circum- 
stances, taken at the happy moment, furnished 
such an impressive commentary upon the import 
of the words, that they were felt, as they never 
before had been felt, to be the words of precious 
truth. Every heart throbbed in unison with the 
sentiment. At the close of the song, there was 
profound silence in the room. After a moment's 
pause, during which the truth that God is good 
seemed to pervade each mind and hold it in 
silent reverence, — the signal for departure was 
given. One after another the boys passed from 
their seats with a light and careful step, as if 
noise and haste would be a desecration both of 
the time and place, — and when they reached the 
open air, refreshing and exhilarating as it was, 
there was no boisterous shout, no rude mirth ; 
each took his homeward course, apparently with 
a new and lively conviction that God is good. 



386 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 



Other occasions. 



It has always been a source of pleasure to 
that teacher to recall from the " buried past " the 
associations connected with that delightful hour 
and that charming song ; and it has been among 
the most gratifying incidents of his experience 
as a teacher, to hear more than one of those 
pupils in later life recur to the memory of that 
day, and acknowledge with thankfulness the last- 
ing impressions which then and there were made 
upon their minds. 



It would be easy to furnish examples to al- 
most any extent, of the manner in which this 
principle has been, or may be carried out in 
practice. The degradation of an intoxicated per- 
son who may pass the school, — the pitiable con- 
dition of the man who may wander through the 
streets bereft of his reason, — any instance of 
sudden death in the neighborhood, particularly 
of a young person, — the passing of a funeral pro- 
cession, — in short, any occurrence that arrests the 
attention of the young and enlists their feeling, 
may be seized upon as the means of making 
upon their minds an impression for good. The 
facts developed in many of their lessons, too, 
afford opportunities for incidental moral instruc- 
tion. The adaptation of means to ends, — the 
evidence of design and intelligence displayed in 
the works of creation, — the existence of constant 
and uniform laws as developed in the sciences, 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 387 



Teacher's satisfaction.— Pleasant retrospection. 

all furnish the means of leading the young mind 
to God. 

That teacher will enjoy the richest satisfaction 
in the evening of life, who, in looking back upon 
his past experience, shall be conscious that he 
has improved every opportunity which God has 
given him, to turn the youthful affections away 
from the things of earth to seek a worthier ob- 
ject in things above. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 

TT is proverbial that the pecuniary compensa- 
tion of the teacher is, in most places, far 
below the proper standard. It is very much to 
be regretted that an employment so important in 
all its bearings, should be so poorly rewarded. In 
New England there are many young women who, 
having spent some time in teaching, have left 
that occupation to go into the large manufact- 
uring establishments as laborers, simply because 
they could receive a higher compensation. I 
have known several instances in which young 
ladies, in humble circumstances, have left teach- 
ing to become domestics, thus performing the 
most ordinary manual labor, because they could 
receive better pay ; that is, the farmers and me- 
chanics of the district could afford to pay more 
liberally for washing and ironing, for making 
butter and cheese, for sweeping floors and clean- 
ing paint, than they could for educating the im- 
mortal minds of their children ! 

Nor is this confined to the female sex. Young 
mechanics and farmers, as well as those employed 
in manufacturing, frequently receive higher wages 
than the common-school teacher in the same dis- 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 389 
Driving pegs.— Injustice.— Extra expense. 

trict. Many a young man who has only genius 
enough to drive the pegs of a shoe in a regular 
row, and skill enough to black the surface of the 
article when it is completed, having spent but a 
few weeks in learning his trade, receives more 
money for his work than he who, after having 
spent months, or even years, in gaining the requi- 
site qualifications, labors to polish that nobler 
material, the human soul. 

The injustice of this becomes more apparent 
when we bear in mind that public opinion de- 
mands, and justly too, that the teacher should 
be not only gentlemanly in his manners, but 
better clad than the mere laborer, — thus throwing 
upon him a greater burden without affording him 
the means of sustaining it. The female teacher 
of a district school, in order to be respectable, 
must be much more expensively dressed than the 
domestic in the family where she boards, and is 
thus compelled to consume most of her receipts 
upon her wardrobe, — while the domestic is able 
to place surplus money at interest in the Savings 
Bank. This injustice has so often been laid be- 
fore the people, and yet has been so long con- 
tinued, that many have given up in despair, and 
abandoned an employment that has yielded so 
little, choosing rather to engage in that lower 
service which is so much better paid. 

This sufficiently explains why so many un- 
qualified teachers have been found in our com- 
mon schools. Men of talents and ability being 



890 THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 

Living by wits. — Improvement. — Means of mental growth. 

tempted to other employments, have left the field 
unoccupied ; and those men who have failed to 
gain a comfortable living by their hands, have 
been allowed to try the experiment of support- 
ing life by their wits, — that is, by becoming 
teachers ! 

Such has been the case for a long time past ; 
and, though in many quarters the people are be- 
ginning to open their eyes to their true interest, 
and are gradually and commendably coming up 
to their duty, yet, for some time to come, the 
pecuniary compensation will not constitute the 
chief reward of the teacher. If he will go cheer- 
fully to his work, and find his daily enjoyment 
in his daily toil, he must have a higher object, 
some more elevating, inspiring motive, than mere 
money-getting. The chief encouragements of the 
faithful teacher lie in another direction. 

It is the object of the following paragraphs 
to point out some of these encouragements ; for, 
having in the preceding pages required very 
much at his hands, I feel that it is but just that 
he should be invited to look at the brighter side 
of the picture, so that when he is ready to sink 
under the responsibilities of his position, or to 
yield to the obstacles that oppose his progress, he 
may have something to animate his soul, and to 
nerve him anew for the noble conflict. 

I. The teacher's employment affords the means 
of intellectual growth. If a man teaches as he 
should teach, he must of necessity improve him- 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 391 
Means of moral growth.— Illustrated. 

self. Teaching, understandingly pursued, gives 
accuracy. I know it is possible for a man to be 
a mere school-master — a pedagogue, without any 
self-improvement. But I am speaking of the 
faithful, devoted teacher, — the man who studies, 
reflects, invents. Such a man learns more than 
his pupils. Every time he takes a class through 
any branch of study, he does it more skillfully, 
more thoroughly than before. He brings some 
fresh illustration of it, presents some new view of 
it, and hence takes a lively interest in it himself, 
and awakens a new zeal among his pupils. Meas- 
uring himself by his new success, he feels a con- 
sciousness of growth, of progress. This conscious- 
ness is a precious reward. 

II. The teacher's employment affords the 
means of moral growth. Brought constantly in 
contact with those who need a careful guidance, 
he feels impelled to earnest effort in order to 
obtain the mastery over himself, as the best 
means of gaining complete influence over others. 
Studying the weak points in their character, he 
is constantly reminded of those in his own ; and 
self-knowledge is the first step toward self-im- 
provement. Beginning in the feebleness of inex- 
perience, he bolsters up his authority at first by 
a frequent resort to force ; but, as he goes on, he 
finds himself gradually gaining such ascendency 
over the vicious as to control them quite as 
effectually by milder means. At first, easily 
excited to anger or impatience, he frequently in- 



392 THE REWAEDS OF THE TEACHER. 
Moral power. — Progress in the art of teaching. 

dulged in severe language when it was unneces- 
sary, — but, by careful discipline, he has learned 
to "set a watch before his mouth, and to keep 
the door of his lips." Encouraged by one victory 
over himself, he is prepared for another. Hav- 
ing learned by self-discipline to control his out- 
ward acts, he next attempts the mastery of his 
thoughts. He soon finds that his moral power 
over others is very much increased. Somehow — 
though perhaps he can not yet tell the reason 
why — he finds he can secure obedience with half 
the effort formerly required, — he gains the love 
of his pupils more readily, — and, with the excep- 
tion, now and then, of an extreme case, he finds 
that he excites a deeper interest than ever before 
in the whole round of duty among the scholars. 
Why is this? he asks, — and the consciousness of 
increased moral power rising up within him, is 
a source of the highest satisfaction. Pecuniary 
emolument sinks into nothing considered as a 
reward, when compared with a conscious victory 
over himself. 

HI. A consciousness of improvement in the art 
of teaching is another reward. Such improve- 
ment will follow as a matter of course from his 
self-improvement in the particulars just named. 
As his own mind expands, he feels a new im- 
pulse to exert himself to interest others in the 
subjects he teaches. He soon comes to look upon 
the work of instruction, not as a mere mechan- 
ical business, to be done in a formal way, but as 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 393 
Pupils' growth of mind.— Immediate results. 

a noble art, based upon certain great principles 
that are capable of being understood and applied. 
He employs all his ingenuity to discover the nat- 
ural order of presenting truth to the mind, — to 
ascertain the precise degree of aid the learner 
needs, and the point where the teacher should 
stop. He studies carefully the proper motives to 
be presented as incentives to exertion. Inter- 
ested in his labor as a great work, looking upon 
his influence as telling upon all future time, he 
devotes himself daily with new zeal, and is re- 
warded with the consciousness of new success. 

IV. The teacher is permitted also to witness 
the constant growth of mind among his pupils. 
I say constant, because the teacher is not obliged 
to labor without seeing immediate results. The 
minister of religion may sometimes sow the seed 
of the good word, while the fruit does not ap- 
pear for a long season. Sometimes a spiritual 
apathy prevails, so that the most faithful warn- 
ings, and the most earnest appeals, seem to fall 
powerless upon the conscience ; and he is led 
almost to despair of ever being able to break 
the deathlike slumber. It is not thus with the 
teacher. His labor tells immediately upon the 
young mind. Even while he is yet speaking, he 
is gratified with observing the soul's expansion, 
as it grasps and assimilates some new idea which 
he presents. From day to day, as he meets his 
classes, he sees how they go on from strength to 
strength, — at first, indeed, with the halting, tot- 



394 THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 
" They were my pupils."— Useful calling. 

tering step of the feeble babe, but soon with the 
firm and confident tread of the vigorous youth. 

A teacher who is for several years employed 
in his vocation, is often astonished at the rapidity 
with which the young, who come to him as 
mere children, grow into men and women, and 
take their places on the stage of life as promi- 
nent actors. Some of them distinguish them- 
selves in the arts ; some become noted for their 
attainments in science ; some receive the honors 
of office and become leaders in civil affairs ; some 
gain eminence as professional men ; and very 
likely a large portion of them are engaged in 
the various departments of honorable industry. 
Wherever they are, and whatever they are, they 
are now exerting a powerful influence in the 
community. They have grown up under his eye, 
and have been essentially shaped by his plastic 
hand. He looks upon them almost with the in- 
terest and pride of a father. He counts them as 
his jewels ; and when he hears of their success, 
their usefulness, and their honors, his heart leaps 
within him, as he thinks, " they were my pupils." 
Even though he may have wasted the strength 
of his best days in the service, what a reward is 
this for the teacher! 

V. The teacher has the consciousness of being 
engaged in a useful and honorable calling. 
What though he may not become rich in this 
world's goods? Who would not prefer above 
houses and lands, — infinitely above all the wealth 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 395 
Professor Agnew.— Educates the mind.— Trains the affections. 



of earth, the consciousness of being engaged in 
a work of usefulness? Man was made for use- 
fulness, — and who would not desire to answer 
the design of his creation ? 

My pen is too feeble to attempt to portray 
the usefulness of the faithful teacher. He edu- 
cates the immortal mind, — wakes it to thought, — 
trains it to discipline — self-discipline, — moves it to 
truth and virtue, — fills it with longings for a 
more perfect state, and sends it forth to exert 
its power for good through all coming time ! 
"To this end," in the glowing language of Pro- 
fessor Agnew, "he communicates a knowledge 
of letters, opens out gradually before the child 
the book of nature and the literature of the 
world ; he disciplines his mind and teaches him 
how to gather knowledge from every source ; 
he endeavors to impart quickness and retentive- 
ness of memory, to cultivate a refined and well- 
regulated imagination, to task, arid thus to give 
vigor to his reasoning powers. He points out 
the appropriate objects of the several affections, 
and the proper exercise of the passions ; he gives 
lessons to conscience, derived from the pure 
fountain of God's own revelation, and teaches 
him to subject his own will to the Highest Will. 
He instructs him in the various sciences, and 
thus displays before him worlds of wondrous 
interest, and invests him with the sources and 
means of pure enjoyment. He trains him for 
the sweet sympathies of social life ; and unfolds 



396 THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 

The infant becomes a man. — A transit. — No limits to usefulness. 

before him the high behests of duty — duty to 
himself, his fellow-creatures, his family, his God. 

" Under such a tuition, behold the helpless 
infant grown to manhood's prime, — a body well 
developed, strong, and active ; a mind symmetric- 
ally unfolded, and powers of intellection closely 
allied to those of the spirits in celestial spheres. 
He becomes a husband and a father ; in these, 
and in all the relations of life, he performs well 
his part. Above all, he is a Christian, with well- 
trained affections and a tender conscience, su- 
premely loving God, maintaining a constant war- 
fare with the world, the flesh, and the devil, — 
growing up into the stature of a perfect man in 
Christ, and anticipating the fullness of joy and 
pleasure for evermore which are at God's right 
hand. The time of his departure at length ar- 
rives ; he has fought the good fight, he has fin- 
ished his course, and he goes to obtain his crown 
and to attune his harp, and forever to dwell on 
the hills of light and love, where angels gather 
immortality. O, what a transit ; from the de- 
pendent helplessness of infancy to the glory of a 
seraph ; from mind scarcely manifested, to mind 
ranging over the immensity of Jehovah's empire, 
and rising in the loftiest exercises of reason and 
affection ! And how much has the faithful 
teacher had to do in fitting him for the blissful 
mansions of the skies I " 

If such be the teacher's work, where is the 
limit to his usefulness ? Yet he may do this not 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 397 



Honorable.— Why ?— Our great men began as teachers. 

for one merely, but for scores, or even hundreds. 
Eternity alone can display the immeasurable, 
inconceivable usefulness of one devoted teacher. 

And is not the teacher's calling honorable ? 
It is, — for its usefulness makes it honorable. To 
scatter the light of truth is always honorable. 
So some of the greatest and best men the world 
ever saw have believed, and have illustrated their 
faith by their practice. Confucius, Socrates, 
Seneca, Aristotle, and Plato were specimens of 
the teachers of ancient date. Roger Ascham, 
John Milton, Francke, Pestalozzi, Arnold, and a 
host of others, have adorned the profession in 
later times. Yet these are men who have taught 
the world to think. Their works live after them, 
— and will continue to live, when the proud fame 
of the mighty warriors, who have marked their 
course in blood, shall have perished from the 
earth. 

If it were necessary and not invidious, how 
many distinguished men in our own country 
could be mentioned, who have been teachers of 
the young, or who are still engaged as such. 
Besides those who have made teaching the busi- 
ness of their lives, how many have been tem- 
porarily employed in this calling. Some of our 
presidents, many of our governors, most of our 
jurists and divines, — indeed, some of every pro- 
fession, "and of the chief women not a few" — 
have first distinguished themselves as school- 
teachers. Well may teachers, then, regard their 



398 THE EEWAKDS OF THE TEACHER. 

* 

Gratitude of pupils.— Gratitude to parents first. 

profession as an honorable one ; always remem- 
bering, however, that " it is not the position 
which makes the man honorable, but the man 
the position." 

VI. The teacher enjoys the grateful remem- 
brance of his pupils and of their friends. When 
a distinguished writer said, "God be thanked for 
the gift of mothers and school-masters," he ex- 
pressed but the common sentiment of the human 
heart. The name of parent justly enkindles the 
warmest emotions in the heart of him who has 
gone out from his native home to engage in the 
busy scenes of the work-day world ; and when 
sometimes he retires from the companionship of 
new-made friends to recall the picture of the past 
and the loved of other days, — to think 

" Of childish joys when bounding boyhood knew 
No grief, but chased the gorgeous butterfly, 
And gambol 'd with the breeze, that tossed about 
His silken curls—" 

how sweetly do the gentle influences of home 
and childhood, with all their tender and hallowed 
associations, come stealing over the soul! The 
world is forgotten ; care may not intrude upon 
this sacred hour ; objects of sense are unheeded ; 
the call to pleasure, is disregarded ; — while the 
rapt soul introverted — transported — dwells with 
unspeakable delight upon its consecrated recol- 
lection of all that is venerable, all that is sacred 
in the name of parent. At this favored hour, 
how the heart swells at the thought of a mother's 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 399 

A devoted mother.— Teacher next to the parent. 



love ! The smiles, the kind words, the sympathy, 
the counsels, the prayers, the tears, — how fondly 
the memory treasures them all up, and claims 
them for its own ! And though Death may have 
long since intruded, and consigned that gentle 
form to the cold earth, rudely sundering the 
cherished bonds of affection, and leaving the 
hearth-stone desolate, — though Change may have 
brought strangers to fell the favorite tree, to re- 
move the ancient landmarks, to lay waste the 
pleasant places, and even to tread thoughtlessly 
by the humble mound that marks the revered 
spot where " departed worth is laid," — though 
Time, " with his effacing fingers," may have been 
busy in obliterating the impressions of childhood 
from the mind, or in burying them deeply be- 
neath the rubbish of perplexing cares, — still the 
true heart never tires with the thought of a fond 
parent, nor ever ceases to " thank God upon every 
remembrance" of a pious, devoted- mother! 

Thus it should ever be. Nothing on earth 
should be allowed to claim the gratitude which 
is justly due to judicious parents. But the faith- 
ful, devoted teacher, the former of youthful char- 
acter and the guide of youthful study, will be 
sure to have the next place in the grateful heart. 
Whether the young man treads the deck of the 
noble ship, in his lonely watch, as she proudly 
walks the waters by night, — or journeys among 
strangers in foreign lands ; — wherever he goes, or 
however employed, — as often as his thoughts re- 



400 THE EEWAEDS OF THE TEACHER. 
Gratitude of parents.— Example. 

visit the scenes of his childhood, and dwell with 
interest upon the events that marked his youth- 
ful progress, he will recur to the old familiar 
school-house, call up its well-remembered inci- 
dents — its joys and its sorrows — its trials and its 
triumphs — its all-pervading and ever-abiding in- 
fluences, and devoutly thank G-od for the gift of 
a faithful, self-denying, patient teacher. 

But the teacher is rewarded also by the grati- 
tude of parents and friends. Some of the sweetest 
moments a teacher ever experiences, are those 
when a parent takes him by the hand, and with 
cordial sincerity and deep emotion, thanks him 
for what he has done for his child. It may have 
been a wayward, thoughtless, perhaps a vicious 
boy, whom kind words and a warm heart, on the 
part of the teacher, have won back to the path 
of rectitude and virtue. 

I have seen an old lady — and I shall never 
forget the sight — bending under the infirmities 
of age, — blind, and yet dependent mainly upon 
her labor for support, invoking the richest of 
heaven's blessings upon the head of a teacher, 
who, by kindness and perseverance, had won back 
her wayward grandson to obedience and duty. 
How her full soul labored as she described the 
change that had taken place ! Her emotion — too 
deep for utterance in words — found expression 
only in tears that streamed from her sightless 
eyes ! She felt that her boy was again a child 
of hope and promise, and that he might yet be 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 401 
Widow's gratitude.— Approval of Heaven.— The G-reat Teacher. 

a virtuous and a useful man. The world may 
raise its empty acclamation to honor the man of 
power and of fame, — it may applaud the statesman 
and weave the chaplet for the conqueror's brow ; — 
but the teacher, humble and obscure though he 
may be, who is the object of the widow's grati- 
tude for being the orphan's friend, with the con- 
sciousness of deserving it, is a happier, I had 
almost said a, greater man. Surely he receive* a 
greater reward. 

VII. The faithful teacher enjoys the approval 
of Heaven. He is employed, if he has a right 
spirit, in a heavenly mission. He is doing his 
Heavenly Father's business. That man should 
be made wiser and happier, is the will of Heaven. 
To this end, the Son of God — The Great Teacher 
— came to bless our race. So far as the school- 
master has the spirit of Jesus, he "is engaged in 
the same great work. Heaven regards with com- 
placency the humble efforts of the faithful teacher 
to raise his fellow-beings from the darkness of 
ignorance and the slavery of superstition ; and 
if a more glorious crown is held in reserve for 
one rather than another, it is for him who, un- 
cheered by worldly applause, and without the 
prospect of adequate reward from his fellow- 
men, cheerfully practices the self-denial of his 
master, spending his strength, and doing with 
diligence and patience "whatsoever his hand 
findeth to do," toward raising his fellow-beings 
to happiness and Heaven. 



402 THE REWARDS OP THE TEACHER. 
Lord Brougham.— A n epitaph..— Cease repining. 

It is such a teacher that the eloquent and 
gifted Lord Brougham describes in the following 
beautiful language : 

"He meditates and prepares, in secret, the 
plans which are to bless mankind ; he slowly 
gathers around him those who are to further 
their execution, — he quietly, though firmly, ad- 
vances in his humble path, laboring steadily, but 
calmly, till he has opened to the light all the 
recesses of ignorance, and torn up by the roots 
the weeds of vice. His progress is not to be 
compared with any thing like the march of the 
conqueror, — but it leads to a far more brilliant 
triumph and to laurels more imperishable than 
the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the 
world, ever won. Each one of these great teach- 
ers of the world, possessing his soul in peace, 
performs his appointed course, awaits in patience 
the fulfillment of the promises, and resting from 
his labors, bequeaths his memory to the genera- 
tion whom his works have blessed, and sleeps 
under the humble, but not inglorious epitaph, 
commemorating ' one in whom mankind lost a 
friend, and no man got rid of an enemy.'' " 

In view of what has been said, let the teacher 
cease to repine at his hard lot. Let him cast an 
occasional glance at the bright prospect before 
him. He deserves, to be sure, a higher pecun- 
iary reward than he receives ; and he should 
never cease to press this truth upon the com- 



THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 408 
Magnify his office. — How? — Moral recompense. 

munity, till talent in teaching is as well compen- 
sated as talent in any other calling. But whether 
he gains this or not, let him dwell upon the 
privileges and rewards to be found in the calling 
itself, and take fresh encouragement. 

The apostle Paul exhibited great wisdom when 
he said, "I magnify mine office." If the fore- 
going views respecting the importance of the 
teacher's calling are correct, he may safely fol- 
low the apostle's example. This is not, however, 
to be done merely by boastful words. No man 
can elevate himself, or magnify his office in pub- 
lic estimation, by indulging in empty declama- 
tion, or by passing inflated resolutions. He must 
feel the dignity of his profession, and show that 
he feels it by unremitted exertions to attain to 
the highest excellence of which he is capable, — 
animated, in the midst of his toil, chiefly by the 
great moral recompense which every faithful 
teacher may hope to receive. 

Let every teacher, then, study to improve 
himself intellectually and morally ; let him strive 
to advance in the art of teaching ; let him watch 
the growth of mind under his culture and take 
the encouragement which that affords ; let him 
consider the usefulness he may effect, and the 
circumstances which make his calling honorable ; 
let him prize the gratitude of his pupils, and of 
their parents and friends ; and above all, let him 
value the approval of Heaven, and set a proper 
estimate upon the rewards which another world 



404 THE REWARDS OF THE TEACHER. 
Einal reward. 

will unfold to him, — and thus be encouraged to 
toil on in faithfulness and in hope, — till, having 
finished his course, and being gathered to the 
home of the righteous, he shall meet multitudes 
instructed by his wise precept, and profited by 
his pure example, who "shall rise up and call 
him blessed." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NOTES ON THE TEACHER'S AUTHORITY AND 
RIGHTS.* 

TEACHERS are peculiarly exposed to criti- 
cism, censure, and to the annoyances and 
dangers of legal persecution. The relations of 
the teacher to school officers, pupils, parents, and 
the general public are so many, so delicate, so 
poorly defined, and so little understood, that dan- 
ger from these sources is always imminent ; and 
it should be a matter of first concern, for one so 
situated, to have some tolerably definite knowl- 
edge of his legal rights. What follows is a mere 
summary ; but the references will enable any one 
to supplement this outline almost at will. 

In public school administration, the downward 
distribution of rights, prerogatives, and duties is 
made as follows : By the election of the board of 

* The references are to the following works by number and page : 

1. The Lawyer in the School-room. By M. McN. Walsh. New 
York : 1867. 

2. Common School Law. By C. W. Bardeen. Syracuse : 1878. 

3. A Treatise on the Law of Public Schools. By Finley Btirke. 
New York : 1880. 

4. Recent School Law Decisions. Compiled by Lyndon A. Smith. 
Washington: 1883. 

5 . The Power and Authority of School Officers and Teachers. New 
York: 1885. 



406 NOTES ON THE TEACHER'S 

Trustees.— Superintendent.— Teachers. 

trustees or school committee, there passes from 
the hands of the people that part of their sover- 
eign power which relates to the management of 
the school and its resources ; and the power thus 
transferred to such officers can not be recalled 
at will, nor can the people interfere with their 
agents save in cases of gross maladministration, 
which would justify impeachment. In case of 
dissatisfaction, the people have their remedy in 
the opportunity for better selections when terms 
of office are about to expire. 

The board of trustees may delegate certain 
duties to a superintendent or principal, and by 
this act they invest him with certain rights and 
prerogatives ; and when this transfer has been 
made it is no more subject to recall than in the 
case just stated. Within his province the super- 
intendent has just the same immunity from in- 
terference as the board has within its province. 

In his turn, the superintendent delegates cer- 
tain duties to his subordinates, and so invests 
them with certain rights and prerogatives ; and 
within their province teachers should be as free 
from interference as their superior is in his. 

A clear definition of these respective spheres 
of duty would relieve public school administra- 
tion of many of its difficulties, and at the same 
time would promote a manly independence among 
teachers. It is a good thing to be charged with 
responsibilities, and at the same time allowed all 
proper freedom of action in working out required 



AUTHORITY AND RIGHTS. 407 

Prerogatives of board,— superintendent,— teacher. 

results. Noble natures are made better and 
stronger by being trusted. Without attempting 
an exact definition of the prerogatives of board, 
superintendent, and teacher, the following state- 
ments will indicate where the lines should be 
drawn. 

Prerogatives of the board. The entire mate- 
rial support of the school ; the employment of 
teachers ; the adoption of courses of study ; the 
selection of text-books ; the making of general 
rules and regulations. 

Prerogatives of the superintendent. The clas- 
sification of pupils ; general methods of instruc- 
tion and government ; the execution of the gen- 
eral rules of the board ; the movements of pupils 
within the building and on the grounds ; exam- 
inations and promotions. 

Prerogatives of the teacher. The arrangement 
of the time-table ; the seating of the pupils ; the 
movements of pupils within the room ; mode of 
recitation ; methods of instruction and govern- 
ment within the general limits prescribed above. 
Where there is no superintendent or principal, 
the teacher's prerogatives will be considerably 
enlarged ; and in isolated schools, as in the coun- 
try, a wider jurisdiction should be allowed in the 
way of authority. 

While the selection of subordinate teachers 
and of text-books is nominally a prerogative of 
the board, it should always be based on the judg- 
ment of the superintendent or principal ; for the 



408 NOTES ON" THE TEACHEK'S 

The State, as the patron of the public schools. 

hearty co-operation of teachers can scarcely be 
secured unless they are conscious that their elec- 
tion and retention are somewhat dependent on 
the approval of their superior ; and the relative 
merits of text-books can best be determined by 
those whose duties have given them special com- 
petence in such matters. 

The State, as the patron of the public schools, 
may make certain studies compulsory ; but be- 
yond this, the board must prescribe what branches 
are to be taught. The teacher has no legal right 
whatever to introduce a study or a text-book on 
his own motion (5: 24, 33; 3: 108, 111; 2: 
41). 

It appears from recent decisions, that while 
the board may determine what subjects shall be 
taught, it may not compel pupils to pursue all 
the studies in the course ; but must make ex- 
ceptions on the demands of parents (5: 34, 41, 
46; 3: 112, 113; 2: 42; 4: 65, 78). If par- 
ents were generally to act in accord with these 
decisions it would be very difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to maintain a graded course of instruction ; 
for in one case (5: 46) it would seem that a pu- 
pil who had not completed the studies of one 
grade might demand admission to a higher 
grade. Some check on these irregularities may 
be found in refusing graduation to those who 
have not completed the entire course of study. 

The decisions of the courts uphold the right 
of boards to make regularity of attendance a 



AUTHORITY AND RIGHTS. 409 



Suspension.— Expulsion.— Corporal punishment. 



condition of membership, and to suspend pupils 
who have violated the attendance rule (5: 3, 10; 
3: 94; 4: 74; 2: 84). However, the law will 
not justify a teacher in barring the door against 
a tardy pupil, especially in inclement weather 
(5 : 9). In case of absence, the teacher may re- 
quire a written excuse from the parent (5 : 22). 

The power to expel lies with the board, and 
not with the teacher (5: 81, 84, 159; 2: 56). 
The teacher may suspend pupils, even when 
there are no rules on the subject (5: 77; 
3: 117; 4: 76). 

The law will sustain the teacher in inflicting 
corporal punishment, provided it be reasonable 
and for sufficient cause (1: 71; 2: 74; 3: 119; 
4: 77; 5: 105,113, 114). The reasonable as- 
sumption is, that in respect of restraint and cor- 
rection, the teacher is in loco parentis, and may 
exercise that degree of force that would be justi- 
fiable in a parent (1: 72, 73, 74, 109; 2: 84- 
3: 119,123; 4: 77; 5: 111). 

The law regards the pupil as under the juris- 
diction of his teacher, from the time he leaves 
his home till he returns there; and the pupil 
may be punished for offenses committed on his 
way to school and from school, if such offenses 
tend to injure the school, or bring the teacher or 
his authority into disrespect (1: 98, 110; 2: 63; 
3 : 129 ; 5 : 96). A pupil may be punished, even 
for offenses that he commits at home, if thereby 
the teacher suffers contempt (3: 129; 5: 96). 



410 NOTES ON THE TEACHER'S 

Religious exercises.— "Written contract. 

Pupils over twenty-one years of age have no ex- 
emption from the rules of the school (5 : 133; 
3: 130). A pupil may be detained after school 
hours for discipline, or for learning a lesson 
{2: 72). 

In general, the law leaves the question of re- 
ligious exercise to the discretion of the board 
(3: 102 ; 2: 50 ; 1: Chapters II. and III; 5: 68). 

In all cases it is prudent for the teacher to 
have a written contract, in which should be speci- 
fied the duration of the term of service, the time 
of beginning, the vacations and holidays that 
may be allowed, the length of the school month, 
and the amount and manner of payment (2 : Part 
II. ; 3 : Chapter VIII.) . Before a teacher can 
make a valid contract, he must have a license 
(3: 70). The teacher can collect pay for time 
lost while the school was closed by the board on 
account of an epidemic (3: 82). 

What is known as "janitor's work," i. e., sweep- 
ing, building fires, etc., can not be exacted of the 
teacher, unless there is an express agreement to 
this effect in the contract. It is the duty of the 
board to make provision for things of this kind, 
and the amount paid for such work can not be 
deducted from the teacher's wages. Very often 
such work is done by the teacher and older pu- 
pils, and this is well, where it is done voluntarily ; 
but such service can not be required (2: 25). 
It would be unwise for a teacher at all times to 
insist on what he knows to be his rights ; it is 



AUTHORITY AND RIGHTS. 411 

The laws favor the teacher. 

sometimes prudent to hold these in abeyance. 
There is sometimes a proneness, especially in the 
smaller communities, for those who are in au- 
thority to magnify their office unduly, and so to 
put a narrow construction on the jurisdiction of 
the teacher. The rule of safety is to keep clearly 
within the sphere of one's rights. In case these 
rights are assailed, it is both a public as well as 
a private duty to defend them. The law recog- 
nizes the difficulties incident to the teacher's of- 
fice, and the necessity of upholding his authority ; 
and the courts are ever disposed to put a gener- 
ous construction on his acts and motives when 
engaged in the defense of decency and good 
order. 



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16° 


224 " 


16° 


288 " 


12° 


482 " 


12° 


600 " 


12° 


160 pp 


16° 


188 " 


12° 



THE INDEPENDENT READERS, 

By J. MADISON WATSON. 

The Independent First ( Pri ™ry) Reader 
The Independent Seoond Reader 
The Independent Third Reader 
The Independent Fourth Reader 
The Independent Fifth Reader . 
The Independent Sixth Reader . 



80 pp 


16° 


160 " 


16° 


240 " 


16° 


264 " 


12° 


886 " 


12° 


474 " 


12° 



The Independent Child's Speller (Script) 80 pp. 16° 
The Independent Youth's Speller (Script) 168 " 12° 
The Independent Complete Speller . . 162 " 16° 
Watson's Graphic Speller 128 " 16° 

Superior in mechanical execution , comprehensive, progressive, practical, and interesting. 
The Intro hiction gives briefly the needful instruction and exercises in the elements of 
spelling, pronunciation, -words, and lines and figures. The Exercises in Drawing are 
not surpassed by any school manual or set of cards, and the Writing Exercises are as 
numerous and as progressive as those of any series of writing-books. The Vocabulary 
contains about 6,000 of the most useful and desirable English words, strictly classified 
with regard to form, length, sound, and topic. Their meaning and use is learned 
from the Language Lessons and the Dictation Reviews, and their correct pronunciation 
is given everywhere. The Appendix contains Rules in Spelling, Capital Letters, Punctu- 
ation Marks, and Abbreviations. 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 



Monteith's Popular Science Reader. 

James Monteith, author of Monteith's Geographies, has here presented a Supple- 
mentary Reading Book expressly for the work of instruction in reading and science at 
one. and ttie same time. It presents a number of easy and interesting lessons on Natural 
Science and Natural History, interspersed with appropriate selections in prose and 
poetry from standard authors, with blackboard drawing and written exercises. It 
serves to instil the noblest qualities of soul and mind, without rehearsing stories of 
moral and mental depravity, as is too often done in juvenile books. The book is elabo- 
rately illustrated with fine engravings, and brief notes at the foot of each page add to 
the value and teachableness of the volume. 12ino, half bound, 300 pages. 

The Standard Supplementary Readers. 

The Standard Supplementary Readers (formerly Su-intou's Supplementary Readers), 
edited by William Swinton and George R. Cathcart. have been received with marked 
favor in representative quarters from Maine to California. They comprise a series of 
carefully graduated reading books, designed to connect with any series of school Readers. 
They are attractive in appearance, are bound in cloth, and the first four books are 
profusely illustrated by Fredericks, White, Dielman, Church, and others. The six books, 
which are closely co ordii^ated with the several Readers of any regular seiies, are ■ — 

1. Easy Steps for Little Feet. Supplementary to F.rst Reader. 

In this book the attractive is the chief aim, and the pieces have been written and 
chosen with special reference to the feelings and fancies of early childhood. 128 pages, 
bound ii cloth and profusely illustrated. 

2. Golden Book of Choice Reading. Supplementary to Second 

Reader. 
This book represents a great variety of pleasing and instructive reading, consisting of 
child-lore and poetry, noble examples and attractive object reading, written specially for it. 
11)2 pages, cloth, with numerous illustrations 

3 Book Of Tales. Being School Readings Imaginative and Emotional. 
Supplementary to Third Reader. 
In this book the youthful taste for imaginative and emotional is fed with pure and noble 
creations drawn from the literature of all nations. 272 pages, cloth. Fully illustrated. 

4. Readings in Nature's Book. Supplementary to Fourth Reader. 
This book contains a varied collection of charming readings in natural history and 

botany, drawn from the works of the great modern naturalists and travellers. 352 pages, 
<loth. Fully illustrated. 

5. Seven American Classics. 

6. Seven British Classics. 

The " Classics " are suitable for reading in advanced grades, and aim to instil a 
taste for the higher literature, by the presentation of gems of British and American 
authorship. 220 pages each, cloth. 

9 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



ORTHOGRAPHY. 

Smith's Series. 

Smith's Series supplies a Speller for every class in graded schools, and comprises 
the most complete anil excellent treatise on English Orthography and its companion 
branches extant. 

1. Smith's Little Speller. 
First round in the ladder of learning. 

2. Smith's Juvenile Define?. 

Lessons composed of familiar words gro«j>ed with reference to similar significa- 
tion or use, and correctly spelled, accented, and denned. 

3. Smith's Grammar-School Speller. 

Familiar words, grouped witli reference to the sameness of sound of syllables dif- 
ferently spelled. Also definitions, complete rules for spelling and formation of deriva- 
tives, and exercises in false orthography. 

4. Smith's Speller and Definer's Manual. 

A complete School Dictionary, containing 14,000 wor^ - , with various other useful 
matter in the way of rules and exercises. 

5. Smith's Etymology — Small and Complete Editions. 

The first and only Etymology to recognize the Awjlo-Saxon our mother tongue; 
containing also full lists of derivatives from the Latin, Greek, Gaelic, Swedish, Norman, 
&c, &c. ; being, in fact, a complete etymology of the language lor schools. 

Northend's Dictation Exercises. 

Embracing valuable information on a thousand topics, communicated in such a 
manner as at once to relieve the exercise of spelling of its usual tedium, and combine 
it with instruction of a general character calculated to profit and amuse. 

Phillip's Independent Writing Speller* 

1. Primary. 2. Intermediate. 3. Advanced. 

Unquestionably the best results can be attained in writing spelling exercises. This 
series combines with written exercise a thorough anil practical instruction in penman- 
ship. Copies in capitals and small letters are set on every page. Spaces for twenty 
words and definitions and errors are given in each lesson. In the ad'-inced book there 
is additional space for sentences. In practical life we spell only when we write. 

Brown's Pencil Tablet for Written Spelling. 

The cheapest prepared pad of ruled blanks, with stiff board back, sufficient foi 
64 lessons of 25 words. 

Pooler's Test Speller. 

The best collection of " hard words " yet made. The more uncommon ones are fully 
defined, and the whole are arranged alphabetically for convenient reference. The book 
is designed for Teachers' Institutes and " Spelling Schools,'' and is prepared by an 
experienced and well-known conductor of Institutes. 

Wright's Analytical Orthography. 

This standard work is popular, because it teaches the elementary sounds in a 
plain and philosophical manner, and presents orthography and orthoepy in an easy, 
uniform system of analysis or parsing. 

10 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS, 
ORTHOGRAPHY — ConHn ue I. 

Barber's Complete Writing Speller. 

"The student's Own Hand-Book of Orthography, Definitions, aim Sentences, con- 
sisting of Written Exercises in the Proper Spelling, Meaning, and Use of Words " 
(Published 1873.) This differs from Sherwood's and other writing spellers in its more 
comprehensive character. Its blanks are. adapted to writing whole sentences instead 
of detached words, with the proper divisions for numbering corrections, && Such 
aids as this, like Watson's Child's Speller and Phillip's Writing Speller, find their 
raison d'etre in the postulate that the art of correct spelling is dependent upon written, 
and not upon spoken language, for its utility, if not for its very existeuce. Hence 
the indirectness of purely oral instruction. 



ETYMOLOGY. 

Smith's Complete Etymology. 
Smith's Condensed Etymology. 

Containing the Anglo-Saxon, French, Dutch, German, Welsh, Danish, Gothic, Swedish, 
Gaelic, Italian, Latin, and Greek roots, and the English words derived therefrom 
accurately spelled, accented, and defined. 

From Hon. Jno. G. McMvnn, late State 

Superintendent of Wisconsin. 

" I wish every teacher in the country 
had a copy of this work." 



From Prop. C. H. Verrill, Pa. State 

Normal School. 

"The Etymology (Smith's) which we 
procured of you we like much. It is the 
best work for the class-room we have 
seeu." 



F. Thelps, Minn. S/ate 



From Prin. Wm. 
Normal. 

" The book is superb — just what is 
needed in the department of etymology 
and spelling." 

From Hon. Edward Ballard, Supt. oj 
Common Schools, State of Mid ne. 

" The author has furnished a manual 0/ 
singular utility for its purpose.'' 



DICTIONARY. 

Williams's Dictionary of Synonymes ; 

Or, Topical Lexicon. This work is a School Dictionary, an Etymology, a compilation 
of Synonymes, and a manual of General In format ion. It differs from the ordinary lexicon 
in being arranged by topics, instead of the letters of the alphabet, thus realizing the 
apparent paradox of a " Readable Dictionary." Afn unusually valuable school-book. 

Kwong's Dictionary of English Phrases. 

With Illustrative Sentences, collections of English and Chinese Proverbs, transla- 
tions of Latin and French Phrases, historical sketch of the Chinese Empire, a chrono- 
logical list of the Chinese Dynasties, brief biographical sketches of Confucius and 
of Jesus, and complete index. By Kwong Ki Chin, late Member of the Chinese Edu- 
cational Mission in the United States, and formerly principal teacher of English in the 
Government School at Shanghai, China. OOpiges. Svo. Cloth. 

From the Hartford Courant : " The volume is one of the most curious and interest- 
ing of linguistic works." 

From the New Yorl: Nation : " It will amaze the sand-lot gentry to be informed that 
this remarkable work will supplement our English dictionaries even for native Americans." 

11 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

DICTIONARIES — Continued. 

Jenkins's Handy Lexicon. 
Jenkins's Vest-Pocket Lexicon. 

A dictionary of all except familiar words, including the principal scientific and tech- 
nical terms, and foreign moneys, weights, and measures. It omits grammatical and 
terminal variations, since words varying as narrate, narrative, narratively, etc., would 
all be understood by becoming acquainted with any one of them. 

Obsolete and local words are generally omitted. 

Latin and French phrases of two or three words, and names of classical mythology 
can be found in their alphabetical places. Also foreign moneys, weights, and measures. 

By omitting words which every one knows, there is room for nearly all that any one 
requires to know. 

Groschopp's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 

A handy Anglo-Saxon dictionary, adapted from Grein's Library of Anglo-Saxon 
poetry. By Dr. Fr. Grnschopp. Translated into English, revised and corrected, with 
outline of Anglo-Saxon grammar and a list of irregular verbs, by William Malone 
Baskerville, Ph. D. (Lips.), Professor of English Language and Literature, Vanderbilt 
University, and James Albert Harrison, Professor of English and Modern Languages, 
Washington and Lee University. 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 

Cobbett's English Grammar. 

With notes, by Robert Waters, Principal of West Hoboken High School. Author of 
" Life and Language of Cobbett." 

This book consists of a series of twenty-one letters, written by William Cobbett. 
They are intended for schools and young persons, but more especially for sailors, 
apprentices, soldiers, and plough-boys. 

In addition to these letters there are six lessons intended to prevent statesmen from 
using false grammar and from writing in an awkward manner. 

This is the only grammar that can profitably be used without a teacher. 

The notes are written in an easy style, and are simple and plain. 

Some Topics in English Grammar. 

By Arthur Hinds. 142 pages. lGmo. Cloth. 

Teachers are almost unanimous in condemning grammars as untruthful, or inconsist- 
ent, or complicated, or as combining these faults. The distinctive features of this 
work, which is the J. G. Scott, or Westfield Normal School system, are: the natural 
method of presenting the subjects, the cutting loose from what is mere tradition, the 
conciseness with which the matter is treated. The book should be read by every pupil 
and teacher of grammar. 

Johnson's Elements of English Grammar. Part I. 

105 pages. 12ino. Half-bound. 

To learn the rudiments of English Grammar, there is no little book more clear and 
simple than this beginner's book, by Mr. H. F. Johnson, of Brookhaven, Miss. It is 
based upon the plan of questions and answers, and is adapted to the comprehension of 
the youngest learners of language. 

R. G. White's Grammar of the " Grammarless 
Tongue." 

If English can be released from rigid formulas derived from its analogies with other 
tongues, and taught as a distinct science, subject only to the laws of reason, we shall 
have " Grammar," as taught by the Fathers, fully reconciled with the modern rage for 
" Language Lessons," and the happy middle ground of the future established. To real- 
ize this, see Professor Sill's new book. 

12 



THE NATIONAL SERIES Or STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 



SILL'S SYSTEM. 
Practical Lessons in English. 

A brief course iu Grammar and Composition. By J. M. B. Sill. This beautiful 
book, by a distinguished and experienced teacher, at once adopted for exclusive use 
in the State of Oregon and the city of Detroit, simply releases English Grammar 
from bondage to Latin and Greek formulas, our language is worthy of being taught 
as a distinct and independent science. It is almost destitute of inflections and yet 
capable of being systematized, and its study may certainly be simplified if treated by 
itself and for itself alone. Superintendent Sill has cut the Gordiau knot and lead's 
the van of a new school of grammarians. 

CLARK'S SYSTEM. 
Clark's Easy Lessons in Language 

Contains illustrated object-lessons of the most attractive character, and is couched 
in language freed as much as possible from the dry technicalities of the science. 

Clark's Brief English Grammar. 

Part [.is adapted to youngest learners, and the whole forms a complete " brief 
course " in one volume, adequate to the wants of the common school. There is no- 
where published a superior text-book for learning thj English tongue than this. 

Clark's Normal Grammar. 

Designed to occupy the same grade as the author's veteran " Practical" Grammar, 
though the latter is still furnished upon order. The Normal is an entirely new treatise. 
It is a full exposition of the system as described below, with all the most recent im- 
provements. Some, of its peculiarities are, — a happy blending of Syntheses with 
Analyses ; thorough criticisms of common errors in the use of our language ; and 
important improvements in the syntax of sentences and of phrases. 

Clark's Key to the Diagrams. 

Clark's Analysis of the English Language. 

Clark's Grammatical Chart. 

The theory anc i practice of teaching grammar in American schools is meeting with a 
thorough revolution from the use of this system. While the old methods offer profi- 
ciency to the pupil only after much weary plodding and dull memorizing, this affords 
from the. inception the advantage of practical Object Teaching, addressing the eye by 
means of illustrative figures ; furnishes association to the memory, its most powerful 
aid, and diverts the pupil by taxing his ingenuity. Teachers who are using Clark's 
Grammar uniformly testify that they and their pupils find it the most interesting study 
of the school course. 

Like all great and radical improvements, the system naturally met at first with much 
unreasonable opposition. It has not only outlived the greater part of this opposition, 
but finds many of its warmest admirers among those who could not at first tolerate so 
radical an innovation. All it wants is an impartial trial to convince the most scep- 
tical of its merit. No one who has fairly and intelligently tested it in the school-room 
has ever been known to go back to the old method. A great success is already 
established, and it is easy to prophesy that the day is not far distant when it will be 
the only system of teaching English Grammar. As the System is copyrighted, no other 
text-books can appropriate this obvious and great improvement. 

Welch's Analysis of the English Sentence. 

Remarkable for its new and simple classification, its method of treating connectives. 
Its explanations of the idioms and constructive laws of the language, &c. 

13 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF, STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

G EOGRAPH Y. 

MONTEITH'S SYSTEM. 

TWO-BOOK SERIES. INDEPENDENT COURSE. 

Elementary Geography. 

Comprehensive Geography (with 103 maps). 

5^°" These volumes are not revisions of old works, not an addition to any series, 
but are entirely new productions, — each by itself complete, independent, comprehen- 
sive, yet simple, brief, cheap, and popular; or, taken together, the most admirable 
" scries " ever offered for a common-school course. They present the following features, 
skilfully interwoven, the student learning all about one country at a time. Always 
revised to date of printing. 

LOCAL GEOGRAPHY. — Or, the Use of Maps. Important features of the maps 
are the coloring of States as objects, and the ingenious system for laying down a much 
larger number of names for reference than are lOund on any other maps of same size, 
and without crowding. 

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. — Or, the Natural Features of the Earth; illus- 
trated by the original and striking relief maps, being bird's-eye views or photographic 
pictures of the earth':- surface. 

DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. — Including the Physical; with some account 
of Governments and it;ices. Animals, &c. 

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY. — Or, a brief summary of the salient points of 
history, explaining the present distribution of nations, origin of geographical 
names, &c. 

MATHEMATICAL GEOGRAPHY. — Including Astronomical, which describes 
the. Earth's position and character among planets ; also the Zones, Parallels, &c. 

COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY. —Or, a system of analogy, connecting new 
lessons with the previous ones. Comparative sizes and latitudes are shown on the 
margin of each map, and all countries arc measured in the " frame of Kansas." 

TOPICAL GEOGRAPHY. — Consisting of questions for review, and testing 
the student's general and specific knowledge of the subject, with suggestions for 
geographical compositions. 

ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY. — A section devoted to this subject, with maps, will 
be appreciated by teachers. It is seldom taught in our common schools, because it 
has heretofore required the purchase of a separate book. 

GRAPHIC GEOGRAPHY, or Map-Drawing by Allen's "Unit of Measure- 
nent" system (now almost universally recognized as without a rival), is introduced 
throughout the lessons, and not as an appendix. 

CONSTRUCTIVE GEOGRAPHY. — Or, Globe-Making. With each book a set 
of map segments is furnished, with which each student may make his own globe by 
iollowing the directions given. 

RAILROAD GEOGRAPHY. — With a grand commercial map of the United 
States, illustrating steamer and railroad routes of travel in the United States, submarine 
telegraph lines, &c. Also a " Practical Tour in Europe.'" 



MONTEITH AND McNALLY'S SYSTEM. 

THREE AND FIVE BOOKS. NATIONAL COURSE. 

Montelth's First Lessons in Geography. 
Monteith's New Manual of Geograph)'. 
McNally's System of Geography. 

The new edition of McNally's Geography is now ready, rewritten throughout by 
James Monteith aiid S. C. Frost. In its new dress, printed from new type, and illus- 
trated with IOC new engravings, it is the latest, most attractive, as well as the most 
thoroughly practical book on geography extant. 

15 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

- , . 

GEOGRAPHY — Continued. 

INTERMEDIATE OR ALTERNATE VOLUMES IN THE FIVE BOOK SERIES. 

Monteith's Introduction to Geography. 
Monteith's Physical and Political Geography. 

i. PRACTICAL OBJECT-TEACHING. —The infant scholar is first introduced 

to a picture whence lie may derive notions of the shape of the earth, the phenomena of 
day and night, the distribution of land and water, and the great natural divisions, 
wniuli mere words would fail entirely, to convey to the untutored mind. Other pictures 
follow on fiie same plan, and the child's mind is called upon to grasp no idea without 
the aid of a pictorial illustration. Carried on to the higher books, this system culmi- 
nates in Physical Geography, where such matters as climates, ocean currents, the 
winds, peculiarities of the earth's crust, clouds and ram, are pictorially explained and 
rendered apparent to the most obtuse. The illustrations used for this purpose belong 
to the highest grade of art 

2. CLEAR, BEAUTIFUL, AND CORRECT MAPS. - In the lower num- 
bers the maps avoid unnecessary detail, while respectively progressive and affording 
the pupil new matter for acquisition each time he approaches in the constantly en- 
larging circle the point of coincidence with previous lessons in the more elementary 
books. In the Physical and Political Geography the maps embrace many new and 
striking features. One of the most effective of these is the new plan for displaying on 
each map the relative sizes of countries not represented, thus obviating much confu- 
sion whicli has arisen from the necessity of presenting maps in the same atlas drawn 
on different scales. The maps of "McNally'' have long been celebrated lor their 
superior beauty and completeness. This is the only school-book in which the attempt 
to make a complete atlas also clear and distinct, has been successful. The map coloring 
throughout the series is also noticeable. Delicate and subdued tints take the place of 
the startling glare of inharmonious colors which too frequently in such treatises dazzle 
the eyes, distract the attention, and serve to overwhelm the names of towns and the 
natural features of the landscape 

3. THE VARIETY OF MAP-EXERCISE. —Starting each time from a dif- 
ferent basis, the pupil in many instances approaches the same fact no less than six 
times, thus indelibly impressing it upon his memory. At the same time, this system is 
not allowed to become wearisome, the extent of exercise on each subject being grad' 
uated by its relative importance or difficulty of acquisition. 

4. THE CHARACTER AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE DESCRIP- 
TIVE TEXT. — The cream of the science lias been carefully culled, unimportant, 
matter rejected, elaboration avoided, and a brief and concise manner of presentation 
cultivated. The orderly consideration of topics has contributed greatly to simplicity 
Due attention is paid to the facts in history and astronomy which are inseparably con- 
nected with and important to the proper understanding of geography, and such only 
are admitted on any terms. In a word, the National System teaches geography as a 
science, pure, simple, and exhaustive 

5. ALWAYS UP TO THE TIMES. — The authors of these books, editorially 
speaking, never sleep. No change occurs 111 the boundaries of countries or of counties, 
no new discovery is made, or railroad built, licit is not at once noted and recorded, and 
the next edition of each volume carries to everv school-room the new order of times 

6. FORM OF THE VOLUMES AND MECHANICAL EXECUTION. 
— The maps and text are no longer unnaturally divorced in accordance with the tiuie- 
houored practice of making text-books on this subject as inconvenient and expensive as 
possible. On the contrary, all map questions are to be found on the page opposite the 
map itself, and each book is complete in one volume. The mechanical execution is 
unrivalled. Paper, printing, and binding are everything that could be desired. 

7. MAP-DRAWING. -In 1869 the system of map-drawing devised by Professor 
Jerome Allen was secured exclusively for this series. It derives its claim to original- 
ly and usefulness from the introduction of a fixed unit of measurement applicable to 
everv map. The principles being so few, simple, and comprehensive, the subject of 
map-drawing is relieved of all practical difficulty. (In Nos. 2, 2* and 3, ami published 
separately.) 

8. ANALOGOUS OUTLINES. — At the same time with map-drawing was also 
Introduced (in No. 2) a new and ingenious variety of object Lessi 1 e m ting of a 
comparison of the outlines of countries with familiar objects pictorially represented. 

16 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

GEOGRAPHY — Continued. * 

Monteith's Boys' and Girls' Atlas of the World. 

Showing all the political divisions of the world, with map-drawing and written exer- 
cises, or imaginary voyages, commercial routes, principal products, comparative, areas 
and populations, height of mountains, length of rivers, highlands, and lowlands. 1(5 
full-page, finely colored maps. 40 pages. Small quarto. 

The maps show all that is needful for the study of geography, besides the courses of 
rivers and oceanic currents, comparative time by clock faces, standard time, profile 
maps, comparative latitude and extent, comparative area, comparative temperature, 
highlands and lowlands, principal products, rate of speed on rail or steamship. Partic- 
ularly valuable as a text-book where oral teaching is attempted. 

Monteith's Old Physical Geography. 

The cry of " Too much of Text- Books,'' so frequently heard, is most happily answered 
by this exceedingly valuable little work, entitled " Monteith's Physical Geography." 
Within a convenient-sized volume (54 pp. quarto.) the author here presents all of Physi- 
cal Geography that the majority of classes can possibly find time to pursue. 

The kindred sciences hitherto unnecessarily combined with this branch of study — 
adding far more to the size and price of the textbooks than to their value — are in this 
work either very materially cut down or wholly eliminated. The book is admirably 
illustrated, containing over sixty very practical cuts, and a sufficient number of finely 
colored Maps. Its arrangement is excellent, paper, type, binding, etc., fully in keeping 
with its other advantages, and its price so moderate that it is brought within the reach 
of all grades of schools. 

Monteith's New Physical Geography. 

Owing to the great progress made in physical science during the past few years, the 
publishers of Monteith's Physical Geography have deemed it necessary to prepare a 
new volume which shall embrace the more recent results of modern research in this field. 
The great popularity enjoyed by Monteith's Physical Geography during the past twenty- 
rive years warrants the assertion that the volume now presented will prove a most 
valuable addition to the geographical works of Professor Monteith, which have since 
their publication been recognized as standards. 

In presenting Monteith's New Physical Geography, the publishers desire to call the 
attention of educators and school boards to the following points : — 

It embraces all of the recent discoveries in Physiography, Hydrography, Meteorology, 
Terrestrial Magnetism , and Vulcanology. 

In the mechanical execution of its pages it is unsurpassed by any text-book of the 
kind ever published. 

The maps and charts have been compiled from original sources, and therefore com- 
prise the latest discoveries pertaining to geographical science. 

While the easy style, graphic description, and the topical arrangement of subjects 
adapt it especially for use in grammar schools, it will be found equally adapted for use 
in high and normal schools. Concluding each chapter is a brief resume of the main facts 
presented therein, a feature that will commend itself to every live teacher and pupil. 

Many of the chapters contain much new matter that has never before appeared in any 
text-book. As examples of this may be mentioned the subject of Terrestrial Magnetism, 
in the preparation of which the author has had access to the records of the U.S. Mag- 
netic Observatory, through the courtesy of Professor Marcus Baker,U.S.C. & G.S. 

The subject of Volcanoes has been compiled from the observations of Professor Judd, 
who is the recognized leading authority on this subject. 

The chapters" on River and Ocean Hydrography embrace many new and interesting 
facts brought to light by the new surveys of the U.S. Engineer Corps, and by Commander 
Bartlett, U.S.N. "Those pertaining to'Ocecm Currents are especially important. 

The subject of Meteorology contains much new information. The Law of Storms is 
the most complete exposition of the subject that has ever been published in a 
text-book. 

Not the least instructive feature of the volume is the Record of Recent Geographical 
Discoveries, which contains a brief account of the explorations of De Long, Nordenskjold, 
Schwatka, Greely, and Shufeldt. 

It contains 144 pages, 125 illustrations, and 15 colored maps. 

18 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



liEOURAPHY — CuiUiivued. 



From Supt. J. C. Gilson, Oakland, Cal. 

" I am pleas*!, delighted, charmed with 
it. It is an ideal work." 

From Prof. J. W. Ferrel, Bloomsburg, 

l'l )IU. 

"It is a charming work. Beautifully 



illustrated and embracing all the depart- 
ments that ought to be treated.'' 

From C. B. Metcalf, Worcester, Muss. 

" Beautiful outside and inside. Typog- 
raphy unsurpassed. The text the best 
feature. Synopsis at the end of each 
chapter a striking point of excellence." 



MAP-DRAWING. 

Monteith's Map-Drawing Made Easy. 

A neat little book of outlines and instructions, giving the "corners of States" in 
suitable blanks, so that maps can be drawn by unskilful hands from any atlas ; with 
instructions for written exercises or compositions on geographical suujee.ts, and com- 
parative geography. 

Monteith's Manual of Map-Drawing (Allen's System). 

The oidy consistent plan, by which all maps are drawn on one scale. By its use 
much time may be saved, and much interest and accurate knowledge gamed. 

Monteith's Map- Drawing and Object Lessons. 

The last-named treatise, bound with Mr. Monteith's ingenious system for commit- 
ting outlines to memory by means of pictures of living creatures and familiar objects. 
Thus, South America resembles a dog's head ; Cuba, a lizard ; Italy, a boot ; Frauee, a 
cotfee-pot ; Turkey, a turkey, &c. , &c. 

Monteith's Colored Blanks for Map-Drawing. 

A new aid in teaching geography, which will be found especially useful in recitations, 
reviews, and examinations. The 'series comprises any section of the world required. 

Monteith's Map-Drawing Scale. 

A ruler of wood, graduated to the " Allen fixed unit of measurement." 



WALL MAPS, 

Monteith's Pictorial Chart of Geography. 

The original drawing for tins beautiful and instructive chart was greatly admired in 
the publisher's "exhibit" at the Centennial Exhibition of 1S76. It is a picture of the 
earth's surface with every natural feature displayed, teaching also physical geography, 
and especially the mutations of water. The uses to which man puts the earth and its 
treasures and* forces, as Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing, Commerce, and Transpor- 
tation, are also graphically portayed, so that the young learner gets a realistic idea of 
" the world we live in,'' which weeks of book study might fail to convey. 

Monteith's School Maps, 8 Numbers. 

The "School Series" includes the Hemispheres (2 maps), United States, North 
America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa. Price, $2 50 each. 

Each map is 28x34 inches, beautifully colored, has the names all laid down, and is 
substantially mounted on canvas with rollers. 

Monteith's Grand Maps, 8 Numbers. 

The "Grand Series" includes the Hemispheres (1 map). North America, United 
States, South America, Europe, Asia, Afrira, the World on Mercator's Projection, and 
Physical Map of the World. Price, $5.00 each. Size, 42x52 inches, names laid down, 
colored, mounted, &c. 

Monteith's Sunday-School Maps. 

Including a map of Paul's Travels (85.00), one of Ancient Canaan ($3. 00), aud Mod- 
ern Palestine (*3.00), or Palestine and Canaan together (jS.oO). 

19 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

NATURAL SCIENCE — Continued. 

THE NEW SURVEYING. 

Van Amringe's Davies' Surveying. 

By Charles Davies, LL.D., author of a Full Course of Mathematics. Revised by J. 
Howard Van Amringe, A.M., Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics in Columbia College. 
5(36 pages. 8vo. Full sheep. 

Davies' Surveying originally appeared as a text-book for the use of the United States 
Military Academy at West Point. It proved acceptable to a much wider held, and 
underwent changes and improvements, until the author's final revision, and has remained 
the standard work on the subject for many years. 

In the present edition, 1SS3, while the admirable features which have hitherto com- 
mended the work so highly to institutions of learning and to practical surveyors have 
been retained, some of the topics have been abridged in treatment, and some enlarged. 
Others have been added, and the whole has been arranged in the order of progressive 
development. A change which must prove particularly acceptable is the transformation 
of the article on mining-surveying into a complete treatise, in which the location of 
claims on the surface, the latest and best methods of underground traversing, &c, the 
calculation of ore-reserves, and all that pertains to the work of the mining-surveyor, 
are fully explained and illustrated by practical examples. Immediately on the publica- 
tion of this edition it was loudly welcomed in all quarters. A letter received as we 
write, from Prof. R. C. Carpenter, of the Michigan State Agricultural College, says : 
" I am delighted with it. I do not know of a more complete work on the subject, and 
I am pleased to state that it is filled with examples of the best methods of modern 
practice. We shall introduce it as a text-book in the college course." This is a lair 
specimen of the general reception. 

Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Maga- 
zine suys : — 
"We find in this new work all that can 
be asked for in a text-book. If there is a 
better work than this on Surveying, either 
for students or surveyors, our attention 
has not been called to it." 



Mathematical Almanac and Animal 
says: — 

"Davies is a deservedly popular author, 
and his mathematical works are text- 
books in many of the leading schools and 
colleges." 



THE NEW LEGENDRE. 

Van Amringe's Davies' Legendre. 

Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry. By Charles Davies, LL.D. Revised (18S5) 
by Prof. J. H. Van Amringe of Columbia College. New pages. 8vo. Full leather. 

The present edition of the Legendre is the result of a careful re-examination of the 
work, into which have been incorporated such emendations in the way of greater clear- 
ness .if expression or of proof as could be made without altering it in form or substance. 
Practical exercises are placed at the end of the several books, and comprise additional 
theorems, problems, and numerical exercises upon the principles of the Book or Books 
preceding. They will be found of great service in accustoming students, early in and 
throughout their course, to make for themselves practical application of geometric 
principles, and constitute, in addition, a large and excellent body of review and test 
questions for the convenience of teachers. The Trigonometry and mensuration have 
been carefully revised throughout ; the deduction of principles and rules has been sim- 
plified ; the discussion of the several cases which arise in the solution of triangles, 
plane and spherical, has been made more full and clear ; and the whole has, in definition, 
demonstration, illustration, &c, been made to conform to the latest and best methods. 

It is believed that in clearness and precision of definition, in general simplicity and 
rigor of demonstration, in the judicious arrangement of practical exercises, in orderly 
and logical development of the subject, and in compactness of form, Davies' Legendre 
is superior to any work of its grade for the general training of the logical powers of 
pupils, and for their instruction in the great body of elementary geometric truth. 

The work has been printed from entirely new plates, and no care has been spared to 
make it a model of typographical excellence. 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

DAVIES'S NATIONAL COURSE 
OF MATHEMATICS. 

ITS RECORD. 

In claiming for this series the first place among American text-books, of whatever 
class, the publishers appeal to the magnificent record which its volumes have earned 
during the thirty-five years of Dr. Charles Davies's mathematical labors. The unremit- 
ting exertions of a 1 fe-time have placed the modern series on the same proud eminence 
among competitors that each of its predecessors had successively enjoyed in a course of 
constantly improved editions, now rounded to their perfect fruition, — for it seems 
almost that this science is susceptible of no further demonstration. 

During the period alluded to, many authors and editors in this department h?ve 
started into public notice, and, by borrowing ideas and processes original with Dr. Davies, 
have enjoyed a brief popularity, but are now almost unknown. Many of the series of 
to-day, built upon a similar basis, and described as " modern books," are destined to a 
similar fate ; while the most far-seeing eye will find it difficult to fix the time, on the 
basis of any data afforded by their past history, when these books will cease to increase 
and prosper, and fix a still firmer hold on the affection of every educated American. 

One cause of this unparalleled popularity is found in the fact that the enterprise of the 
author did not cease with the original completion of his books. Always a practical 
teacher, he has incorporated in his text-books from time to time the advantages nl every 
improvement in methods of teaching, and every advance in science. During all the 
years in which he has been laboring he constantly submitted his own theories and those 
of others to the practical test of the class-room, approving, rejecting, or modifying 
them as the experience thus obtained might suggest. In this way he has been able 
to produce an almost perfect series of class-books, in which every department of 
mathematics has received minute and exhaustive attention. 

Upon the death of Dr. Davies, which took place in 1876, his work was immediately 
taken up by his former pupil and mathematical associate of many year?, Prof. W. G 
Peck, LL.D., of Columbia College. By him, with Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, of Columbia 
College, the original series is kept carefully revised and up to the times. 



Davies's System is the acknowledged National Standard foe the United 
States, for the following reasons : — 

1st. It is the basis of instruction in the great national schools at West Point and 
Annapolis. 

2d. It has received the quasi indorsement of the National Congress. 

3d. It is exclusively used in the public, schools of the National Capital. 

4th. The officials of the Government use it as authority in all cases involving mathe- 
matical questions. 

5th. Our great soldiers and sailors commanding the national armies and navies were 
educated in this system. So have been a majority of eminent scientists in this country. 
All these refer to " Davies " as authority. 

6th. A larger number of American citizens have received their education from this 
than from any other series. 

7th. The series has a larger circulation throughout the whole country than any other, 
being extensively used in every State in the Union. 

22 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOvL-BOOKS. 
DAViES AND PECK'S AR ITH M ETICS. 

OPTIONAL OR CONSECUTIVE. 

The best thoughts of these two illustrious mathematicians are combined in the 
following beautitul works, which are the natural successors of Davies's Arithmetics, 
sumptuously printed, and bound in crimson, green, and gold: — 

Davies and Peck's Brief Arithmetic. 

Also called the " Elementary Arithmetic." It is the shortest presentation of the sub- 
ject, and is adequate for all grades in common schools, being a thorough introduction to 
practical life, except for the specialist. 

At first the authors play with the little learner for a few lessons, by object-teaching 
and kindred allurements ; but he soon begins to realize that study is earnest, as he 
becomes familiar with the simpler operations, and is delighted to hud himself master of 
important results. 

The second part reviews the Fundamental Operations on a scale proportioned tu 
the enlarged intelligence of the learner. It establishes the General Principles and 
Properties of Numbers, and then proceeds to Fractious. Currency and the Metric 
System are fully treated in connection with Decimals. Compound Numbers and Re- 
duction follow, and finally Percentage with all its varied applications. 

An Index of words and principles concludes the book, for which every scholar and 
most teachers will be grateful. How much time has been spent in searching for a half- 
forgotten definition or principle in a former lesson ! 

Davies and Peck's Complete Arithmetic. 

This work certainly deserves its name in the best sense. Though complete, it is not, 
like most others which bear the same title, cumbersome. These authors excel in clear, 
lucid demonstrations, teaching the science pure and simple, yet not ignoring convenient 
methods and practical applications. 

For turning out a thorough business man no other work is so well adapted. B"e will 
have a clear comprehension of the science as a whole, and a working acquaintance 
with detai.s which must serve him well in all emergencies. Distinguishing features of 
tlie book are the logical progression of the subjects and the great variety of practical 
problems, not puzzles, which are beneath the dignity of educational science. A clear- 
minded critic has said of Dr. Peck's work that it is free from that juggling with 
numbers which some authors falsely call " Analysis." A series of Tables for convening 
ordinary weights and measures into the Metric System appear in the later editions. 



PECK'S ARITHMETICS. 
Peck's First Lessons in Numbers. 

This book begins with pictorial illustrations, and unfolds gradually the science of 
numbers. It noticeably simplifies the subject by developing the principles of addition 
and subtraction simultaneously ; as it does, also, those of multiplication and division. 

Peck's Manual of Arithmetic. 

This book is designed especially or those who seek sufficient instruction to carry 
them successfully through practical life, but have not time for extended study. 

Peck's Complete Arithmetic. 

This completes the series but is a much briefer book than most of the complete 
arithmetics, and is recommended not only for what it contains, but also for what is 
omitted. 

It maybe said of Dr. Peck's books more truly than of any other series published, that 
they are clear and simple in definition and rule, and that' superfluous matter of every 
kind has been faithfully eliminated, tints magnifying the working value of the book 
and saving unnecessary expense of time and labor. 

23 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



BARNES'S NEW MATHEMATICS. 

In this series Joseph Ficklin, Ph. D., Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy 
in the University of Missouri, lias combined all the best and latest results of practical 
and experimental teaching of arithmetic with the assistance of many distinguisned 
mathematical authors. 



Barnes's Elementary Arithmetic. 
Barnes's National Arithmetic. 

'1 hese two works constitute a complete arithmetical course in tvio hooks. 

They meet the demand for text-books that will help students to acquire the greatest 
amount of useful and practical knowledge of Arithmetic by the smallest expenditure of 
time, labor, and money. Nearly every topic in Written Arithmetic is introduced, and its 
principles illustrated, by exercises iu Oral Arithmetic. The free use of Equations ; the 
concise method of combining and treating Properties of Numbers; the treatment of 
Multiplication and Division of Fractions in too cases, and then reduced to one ; Can- 
cellation,!^ the use of the vertical line, especially in Fractions, Interest, and Proportion ; 
the brief, simple, and greatly superior method of working Partial Payments by the 
" Time Table " and Cancellation ; the substitution of formulas to a great extent fur 
rules; the full and practical treatment of the Metric System, &c, indicate their com- 
pleteness. A variety of methods and processes for the same topic, which deprive the 
pupil of the great benefit of doing a part of the thinking and labor for himself, have 
been discarded. The statement of principles, definitions, rules, &c, is brief and simple. 
The illustrations and methods are explicit, direct, and practical. The great number 
and variety of Examples embody the actual business of the day. The very large 
amount of matter condensed in so small a compass has been accomplished by econo- 
mizing every line of space, by rejecting superlluous matter and obsolete terms, and by 
avoiding the repetition of analyses, explanations, and operations in the advanced topics 
which have been used in the more elementary parts of these books. 

AUXILIARIES. 

For use in district schools, and for supplying a text-book in advanced work for 
classes having finished the course as given in the ordinary Practical Arithmetics, th« 
National Arithmetic has been divided and bound separately, as follows : — 

Barnes's Practical Arithmetic. 

Barnes's Advanced Arithmetic. 

In many schools there are classes that for various reasons never reach beyond 
Percentage. It is just such cases where Barnes's Practical Arithmetic will answer a 
good purpose, at a price to the pupil much less than to buy the complete book. On the 
other hand, classes having finished the ordinary Practical Arithmetic can proceed 
with the higher course by using Barnes's Advanced Arithmetic. 

For primary schools requiring simply a table book, and the earliest rudiments 
forcibly presented through object-teaching and copious illustrations, we have 
prepared 

Barnes's First Lessons in Arithmetic, 

which begins with the most elementary notions of numbers, and proceeds, by simple 
steps, to develop all the fundamental principles of Arithmetic. 



Barnes's Elements of Algebra. 

This work, as its title indicates, is elementary in its character and suitable for use, 
(1) in such public schools as give instruction in the Elements of Algebra ; (2) in institu- 
tions of learning whose courses of study do not include Higher Algebra ; (3) in schools 
whose object is to prepare students for entrance into our colleges and universities. 
This book will also meet the wants of students of Physics who require some knowledge of 

21 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



Algebra. The student's progress in Algebra depends very largely upon the proper treat- 
ment of the four Fundamental Operations. The terms Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, 
and Division in Algebra have a wider meaning than in Arithmetic, and these operations 
have been so defined as to include their arithmetical meaning ; so that the beginner 
is sinf'jly called upon to enlarge his views of those fundamental operations. Much 
attention has been given to the explanation of the negative sign, in order to remove the 
well-known difficulties in the use and interpretation of that sign. Special attention is 
here called to " A Short Method of Removing Symbols of Aggregation," Art. 76. On 
account of their importance, the subjects of Factoring, Greatest Common Dirisor, and 
Least Common Multiple have been treated at greater length than is usual in elementary 
v works. Id the treatment of Fractions, a method is used which is quite simple, and, 
at tl/e same time, more general than that usually employed. In connection with Radical 
Quantities the roots are expressed by fractional exponents, for the principles and rules 
applicable to integral exponents may then be used without modification. The Equation 
is made the chief subject of thought in this work. It is defined near the beginning, 
and used extensively in every chapter. In addition to this, four chapters are devoted 
exclusively to the subject of Equations. All Proportions are equations, and in their 
treatment as such all the difficulty commonly connected with the subject of Proportion 
disappears. The chapter on Logarithms will doubtless be acceptable to many teachers 
who do not require the student to master Higher Algebra before entering upon the 
study of Trigonometry. 



HIGHER MATHEMATICS. 
Peck's Manual of Algebra. 

Bringing the methods of Bourdon within the range of the Academic Course. 

Peck's Manual of Geometry. 

By a method purely practical, and unembarrassed by the details which rather confuse 
than simplify science. 

Peck's Practical Calculus. 

Peck's Analytical Geometry. 

Peck's Elementary Mechanics. 

Peck's Mechanics, with Calculus. 

The briefest treatises on these subjects now published. Adopted by the great Univer- 
sities : Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, &c. 

Macnie's Algebraical Equations. 

Serving as a complement to the more advanced treatises on Algebra, giving special 
attention to the analysis and solution of equations with numerical coefficients. 

Church's Elements of Calculus. 

Church's Analytical Geometry. 

Church's Descriptive Geometry. With plates. 2 vols. 

These volumes constitute the " West Point Course " in their several departments. 
Prof. Church was long the eminent professor of mathematics at West Point Military 
Academy, and his works are standard in all the leading colleges. 

Courtenay's Elements of Calculus. 

A standard work of the very highest grade, presenting the most elaborate attainable 
survey of the subject. 

Hackley's Trigonometry. 

With applications to Navigation and Surveying, Nautical and Practical Geometry, 
and Geodesy. 

25 



THl NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL COOKS. 



BARNES'S ONE-TERM HISTORY 
SERIES. 




Brief History of the United 
States. 



"^v-J 



This is probably the most orwixal school-book pub 
lished for many years, in any department. A few of it? 
claims; are the following : — 

i. Brevity. — The text is complete for grammar school 
or intermediate classes, in 29) 1 2nx> pages, targe type, 
It may readily be completed, if desired, in one term o< 
study. 

2. Comprehensiveness — Though so brief, this hook 
cnn tains the pithul .-ill the wearying contents of the larger 
manuals, and a great deal more than the memory usually 
retains Tom the latter 

3. Interest has been a prime consideration. Small 
hooks have heretofore been bare, full of dry statistics uuattractive. This one is 
charmingly written, replete with anecdote, and brilliant with illustration. 

4. Proportion of Events. — It is remarkable for the discrimination with which 
the different portions of our history are presented accordingto their importance. Thus 
the older works, being already large books when the Civil War took place, give it less 
space than that accorded to the Revolution. 

5. Arrangement. — In six epochs, entitled respectively. Discovery and Settlement, 
the ('ninnies, the Revolution, Growth of States, the Civil War. and Current Events. 

6 Catch Words — Each paragraph is preceded by its leading thought in promi- 
nent tvpe, standing in the student's mind for the whole paragraph. 

7. Key Notes. — Analogous with this is the idea of grouping battles, See. . about, 
some central event, which relieves the sameness so common in such descriptions, and 
renders each distinct by some striking peculiarity of its own. 

8 Foot-Notes. — these are crowded with interesting matter that is not strictly a 
part of history proper. They may be learned or not, at pleasure. They are certain 
in any event to be read. 

9. Biog:aphies of all the leading characters are given in full in foot-notes. 

10. Maps. — Elegant and distinct maps from engravings on copper-plate, and beauti- 
fully anlored, precede each epoch, and contain all the places named. 

11. Questions are at the back of the book, to compel a more independent use of the 
text. Both text and questions are so worded that the pupil must give intelligent 
answers in his own words. " Yes " and " No " will not do. 

27 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



HISTORY — Continued. 

12. Historical Recreations. — These are additional questions to test the student's 
knowledge, in review, as: "What trees are celebrated in our history?" "When 
did a fog save our army?" "What Presidents died in office?'' "When was the 
Mississippi our western boundary?" "Who said, 'I would rather be right than 
President'?" &c. 

13. The Illustrations, about seventy in number, are the work of our best artists 
and engravers, produced at great expense. They are vivid and interesting, and mostly 
upon subjects never before illustrated in a school-book. 

14. Dates- — Only the leading dates are given in the text, and these are so associated 
as to assist the memory, but at the head of each page is the date of the event first 
mentioned, and at the close of each epoch a summary of events and dates. 

15. The Philosophy of History is studiously exhibited, the causes and effect 
of events being distinctly traced and their inter-connection shown. 

16. Impartiality. — All sectional, partisan, or denominational views are avoided. 
Facts are stated after a careful comparison of all authorities without the least prejudice 
or favor. 

17. Index. — A verbal index at the close of the book perfects it as a work of reference. 
It will be observed that the above are all particulars in which School Histories have 

been signally defective, or altogether wanting. Many other claims to favor it shares in 
common ™ith its predecessors. 



TESTIMONIALS. 



From Prof. Wm. P. Allen, State Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. 
" Two features that I like very much 
are the anecdotes at the foot of the page 
and the i Historical Recreations' in the 
Appendix. The latter, I think, is quite 
a a -w feature, and the other is very well 
executed." 

From Hon. Newton Bateman, Superin- 
tendent Public Instruction, Illinois. 
" Barnes's One-Term History of the 
United States is an exceedingly attrac- 
tive and spirited little book. Its claim 
to several new and valuable features seems 
well founded. Under the form o! six well- 
defined epochs, the history of the United 
States is traced tersely, yet pithily, from 
the earliest times to the present day. A 
good map precedes each epoch, whereby 
the history and geography of the period 
may be studied together, as thy always 
should be. The syllabus of each paragraph 
is made to stand in such bold relief, by 
the use of large, heavy type, as to be of 
much mnemonic value to the student. The 
book is written in a sprightly and pi- 
quant style, the interest never flagging 
from beginning to end, — a rare and dim- 
cult achievement in works of this kind." 

From Hon. Abner .1. Phipps, Siperiu- 

tendent S -hoots, Lnciston, Maine. 
" Barnes's History of the United States 



has been used for several years in the 
Lewiston schools, and has proved a very 
satisfactory work. I have examined the 
new edition of it." 

From Hon. R. K. Buchell, City Supenn- 
tendent Schools, Lancaster, Pa. 

" It is the best history of the kind I have 
ever seen." 

From T. J. Charlton, Superintendent 
Public Schools, Vincennes, InJ. 
"We have used it here for six years, 
and it has given almost perfect satisfac- 
tion. . . . The notes in fine print at the 
bottom of the pages are of especial value." 

From Prof. Wm. A. Mowrv, E. $• C. 
School, Providence, R. I. 

" Permit me to express my high appre- 
ciation of your book. I wish'all text- 
books for the young had equal merit." 

From Hon. A. M. Keiley, City Attorney, 
Late Mayor, and President of the School 
Board, City of Richmond, Va. 
" I do not hesitate to volunteer to you 
the opinion that Barnes 's History is en- 
titled to the preference in almost every 
respect that distinguishes a good school- 
book. . . . The narrative generally exhibits 
the temper of the judge ; rarely, if ever, 
of the advocate.'' 



.23 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 







With an account of their monuments, 
literature, and manners. 340 pages. 
12nio. Profusely illustrated. 

In this work tlie political history, 
which occupies nearly, if not all, 
the ordinary' school text, is condensed 
to the salient and essential facts, in 
order to give room for a clear outline 
of the literature, religion, architecture, 
character, habits, &c, of each nation. 
Surely it is as important to know some- 
thing about Plato as all about Csesar, 
.■iiid to learn how the ancients wrote 
their books as how they fought their 
battles. 

The chapters on Manners and Cus- 
toms and the Scenes in Real Life repre- 
sent the people of history as men and 
women subject to the same wants, hopes 
and fears as ourselves, and so bring the distant past near to us. The Scenes, which are 
intended on/y /or rrnrfiM,/, are the result of a careful study of the unequalled collections of 
monuments in the London and Berlin Museums, of the ruins in Rome and Pompeii, and 
of the latest authorities on the domestic life of ancient peoples. Though intentionally 
written in a semi-romantic style, they are accurate pictures of what mipht have occurred, 
and some of them are simple transcriptions of the details sculptured in Assyrian 
alabaster or painted on Egyptian walls. 

29 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



HISTORY — Continued. 

The extracts made from the sacred books of the East are not specimens of their style 
and teachings, but only gems selected often from a mass of matter, much of which would 
be absurd, meaningless, and even revoking. It has not seemed best to cumber a book 
like this with selections conveying no moral lesson. 

Hie numerous cross-references, the abundant dates in parenthesis, the pronunciation 
of the names in the Index, the choice reading references at the close of each general 
subject, and the novel Historical Recreations in the Appendix, will be of service to 
teacher and pupil alike. 

Though designed primarily for a text-book, a large class of persons — general readers, 
who desire to know something about the progress of historic criticism and Sae, recent 
discoveries made among the resurrected monuments of the East, but have no leisure to 
read the ponderous volumes of Brugsch, Layard, Grote, Mommsen, and lime — will find 
this volume just what they need. 

From Homer B. Spbague, Head Master 
Girls' High School, West Neivton St., Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
" I beg to recommend in strong terms 

the adoption of Barnes's ' History of 



Ancient Peoples ' as a text-book. It is 
about as nearly perfect as could be 
hoped for. The adoption would give 
great relish to the study of Ancient 
History." 




HE Brief History of France. 

By the author of the " Bri"f United States," 
with ali the attractive features of that popu- 
lar work (which see) and new ones of its own. 
It is believed that the History of Franca 
has never before been presented in such 
brief eo7npass, and this is effected without 
sacrificing one particle of interest. The book 
reads like a romance, and, while drawing the 
student by an irresistible fascination to his 
task, impresses the great outlines indelibly upon the memory. 

30 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



HISTORY — Continued. 



Mediaeval and Modern 



Barnes's Brief History of 
Peoples. 

The success of the History of Ancient Peoples was immediate and great. A History 
of Mediaeval and Modern History, upon the same plan, was the natural sequence". 
Those teachers who used the forme,- will be glad to know that the latter book is now 
ready, and classes can go right on without changing authors. 



The New York School Journal says : — 
" The tine-print notes . . . work a field 
not widely developed until Green's His- 



tory of English People appeared, relating 
to the description of real, every-day hie 
of the people." 



This work distinguishes between the period of the world's history from the Fall of 
Rome (a.d. 476) to the Capture of Constantinople (a.d. 1453), — about one thousand 
years, called " Middle Ages," — and the period from the end of the fifteenth century to 
the present time. It covers the entire time chronologically and by the order of events, 
giving one hundred and twenty-two fine illustrations and sixteen elaborate maps. 




[Illustration from Barnes's Brief- History 
Series.] 

The subject has never before been so in- 
terestingly treated in brief compass. The Po- 
litical History of each nation is first given, 
then the Manners and Customs of the People. 
A better idea of the growth of civilization and 
the changes in the condition of mankind can- 
not be found elsewhere. The book is fitted 
for private reading, as well as schools. 

31 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

HISTORY — Continued. 

Barnes's Brief General History. 

Comprising Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern Peoples. 

The special features of this book aee as follows : — 

The General History contains 600 pages. Of this amount, 350 pages are devoted to 
the political history, and 250 pages to the civilization, manners, and customs, etc. The 
latter are in' separate chapters, and if the time of the teacher is limited, may be omitted. 
The class can thus take only the political portion when desired. The teacher will have, 
however, the satisfaction of knowing that, such is the fascinating treatment of the 
civilization, literature, etc., those chapters will be carefully read by the pupils ; and, on 
the principle that knowledge acquired from love alone is the most vivid, will probably 
be the best-remembered part of the book. This portion of the book is therefore all 
clear gain. 

The Black-board Analysis. See p. 314 as an example of this marked feature. 

The exquisite Illustrations, unrivalled by any text-book. See pp. 9,457, and 582, as 
samples of the 240 cuts contained in this beautiful work. 

The peculiar Summaries, and valuable lists of Reading References. See p. 417. 

The numerous and excellent colored Maps. These are so full as to answer for an 
extensive course of collateral reading, and are consequently useful for reference outside 
of class-work. See pp. 209 and 317. 

The Scenes in Real Life, which are the result of a careful study of the collections 
and monuments in the London, Paris, and Berlin museums, and the latest authorities 
upon the domestic life of the people of former times. See pp. 38-39. This scene — 
a Lord of the IVth "Dynasty — is mainly a transcription of details to be found painted 
on the walls of Egyptian tombs. 

The chapters on Civilization that attempt to give some idea of the Monuments, Arts, 
Literature, Education, and Manners and Customs of the different nations. See pp. 171, 
180, 276, 279, 472, and 514. 

The admirable Genealogical Tables interspersed throughout the text. See pp. 340 
and 494. 

The Foot-Notes that are packed full of anecdotes, biographies, pleasant information, 
and suggestive comments. As an illustration of these, take the description of the 
famous sieges of Haarlem and Leyden, during the Dutch War of Independence pp 446 
and 443. ' Fl ' 

The peculiar method of treating Early Roman History, by putting in the text the 
farts as accepted by critics, and, in the notes below, the legend's. Sec pp 205-6. 

The exceedingly useful plan of running collateral history in parallel columns, as for 
example on p. 361, taken from the Hundred Years' War. 

The Historical Recreations, so valuable in arousing the interest of a class. See 
p. xi from the Appendix. 

The striking opening of Modern History on pp. 423-4. 

The interesting Style, that sweeps the reader along as by the fascination of a novel. 
The pupil insensibly acquires a taste for historical reading and forgets the tediousness 
of the ordinary lesson in perusing the thrilling story of the past See pp ~2r>i-2 

Special attention is called to the chapter entitled Rise of Modern Nations,— 
England Prance, and Germany. The characteristic feature in the mediaeval history of 
each of these nations is made prominent, (a.) After the Four Conquests of England, 
the central idea in the growth of that people was the Development of Constitutional 
Liberty. (6.) The feature of French history was the conquest of the great vassals by 
the king the triumph of royalty over feudalism, and the final consolidation of the 
scattered fiefs into one grand monarchy, (c.) The characteristic of German history was 
disunion, emphasized by the lack of a central capital citv. and by an elective rather than 
an hereditary monarchy. The struggle of the Crown with its powerful vassals was the 
same as m France, but developed no national sentiment, and ended in the. establishment 
of semi-independent dukedoms. 

These three thoughts furnish the beginner with as many threads on which to string 
the otherwise isolated facts of this bewildering period. 



32 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 




GENERAL HISTORY. 

Monteith's Youth's History of the United States. 

A History of the United States for beginners. It is arranged upon the catechetical plan, 
with illustrative maps and engravings, review questions, dates in parentheses (that their 
study may be optional with the younger class of learners), and interesting biographical 
sketches of all persons who have beeu prominently identified with the history of our 
country. 

Willard's United States. School and University Editions. 

The plan of this standard work is chronologically exhibited in front of the titlepage. 
The maps and sketches are found useful assistants to the memory : and dates, usually 
so difficult to remember, are so systematically arranged ;is in a great degree to obviate 
the difficulty. Candor, impartiality, and accuracy are the distinguishing features of 
the narrative portion. 

Willard's Universal History. New Edition. 

The most valuable features of the <; United States " are reproduced in this. The 
peculiarities of the work are its great conciseness and the prominence given to the 
chronological order of events. Tiie margin marks each successive era with great dis- 
tinctness, so that the pupil retains not only the event but its time, and thus fixes the 
order of history firmly and usefully in his mind. Mrs. Willard's books are constantly 
revised, and at all times written up to embrace important historical events of recent 
date. Professor Arthur Gilman has edited the last twenty-five years to 1882. 

Lancaster's English History. 

By the Master of the Stoughton Grammar School, Boston. The most practical of the 
"brief books." Though short, it is not a bare and uninteresting outline, but contains 
enough of explanation and detail to make intelligible the cause mi J tffect of events. 
Tlieir relations to the history and development of the American people is made specially 
prominent. 

Willis's Historical Reader. 

Being Collier's" Great Events of History adapted to American schools. This rare 
epitome of general history, remarkable for its charming style and judicious selection of 
events on which the destinies of nations have, turned, has been skilfully manipulated 
by Professor Willis, witli as few changes as would bring the United St;ites into its proper 
position in the historical perspective. As reader or text-book it has few equals and no 
siux'nor. 

Berard's History of England. 

By an authoress well known for the success of her History of the United States. 
The' social life of the Enelish people is felicitously interwoven, as in fact, with the civil 
and military transactions of the. realm 

Ricord's History of Rome. 

Possesses the charm of an attractive romance. The fables with which this history 
abounds are introduced in such a way as not to deceive the inexperienced, while adding 
materially to the value of the work as a reliable index to the charactei aud institutions, 
as well as the historv of the Roman people. 

35 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



HISTORY — Continued. 

Hanna's Bible History. 

The only compendium of Bible narrative which affords a connected and chronological 
view of the important events there recorded, divested of all superfluous detail. 

Summary of History ; American, French, and English. 

A well-proportioned outline of leading events, condensing the substance of the more 
sxtensive text-books in common use into a series of statements so brief, that every 
word may be committed to memory, and yet so comprehensive that it presents au 
accurate though general view of the whole continuous life of nations. 

Marsh's Ecclesiastical History. 

Affording the History of the Church in all ages, with accounts of the pagan world 
during the biblical periods, and the character, rise, and progress of all religions, as well 
as the various sects of the worshippers of Christ. The work is entirely non-sectarian, 
though strictly catholic. A separate volume contains carefully prepared questions for 
class use. 

Mill's History of the Ancient Hebrews. 

With valuable Chronological Charts, prepared by Professor Edwards of N. T. This, 
is a succinct account of the chosen people of God to the time of the destruction of 
Jerusalem. Complete in one volume. 

Topical History Chart Book. 

By Miss Ida P. Whitcomb. To be used in connection with any History, Ancient or 
Modern, instead of the ordinary blank book for summary. It embodies the names of 
contemporary riders from the earliest to the present time, with blanks under each, in 
which the pupil may write the summary of the life of the ruler. 

Gilman's First Steps in General History. 

A "suggestive outline" of rare compactness. Each country is treated by itself, and 
the United States receive special attention. Frequent maps, contemporary events in 
tallies, references to standard works for fuller details, and a minute Index constitute 
the " Illustrative Apparatus." From no other work that we know of can so succinct a 
view of the world's history be obtained. Considering the necessary limitation of space, 
the style is surprisingly vivid, and at times even ornate. In all respects a charming, 
though not the less practical, text-book. 

Baker's Brief History of Texas. 
Dimitry's History of Louisana. 
Alison's Napoleon First. 

The history of Europe from 17SS to 1S15. By Archibald Alison. Abridged by Edward 
S. Gould. One vol. , 8vo, with appendix, questions, and maps. 550 pages. 

Lord's Points of History. 

The salient points in the history of the world arranged catechetically for class use or 
for review and examination of teacher or pupil. By John Lord, LL.D. 12mo, 309 
pages. 

Carrington's Battle Maps and Charts of the American 
Revolution. 

Topographical Maps and Chronological Charts of every battle, with 3 steel portraits 
of Washington. 8vo, cloth. 

Condit's History of the English Bible. 

For theological and historical students this book has an intrinsic value. It gives the 
history of all the English translations down to the present time, together with a careful 
review of their influence upon English literature and language. 

36 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



DRAWING. 

BARNES'S POPULAR DRAWING SERIES. 

Based upon the experience of the most successful teachers of drawing in the United 
States. 

The Primary Course, consisting of a manual, ten cards, and three primary 
drawing Iiooks, a, B,anu c 

Intermediate Course. Four numbers and a manual. 

Advanced Course, four numbers and a manual. 

Instrumental Course. Pour numbers, and a manual. 

'the Intermediate, Advanced, and Instrumental Courses are furnished either in book 
or card form at the same prices. The books contain the usual blanks, with the unusual 
advantage of opening Iroin the pupil, — placing the copy directly in front and above 
the blank, thus occupying but little desk-room. The cards are in the end more econom- 
ical than the books, if used in connection with the patent blank folios that accompany 
this series. 

The cards are arranged to be bound (or tied) in the folios and removed at pleasure. 
The pupil at the end of each number has a complete book, containing only his own 
work, while the copies are preserved and inserted in another fol.o ready for use in the 
next class. 

Patent Blank Folios. No. 1. Adapted to Intermediate Course. No. 2. Adapted 
to Advanced anu liisu'Uiueutal Courses. 

ADVANTAGES OF THIS SERIES. 

The Plan and Arrangement. — The examples are so arranged that teachers and 
pupils can see, at a glance, how they are to be treated and where ihey are to be copied. 
In this system, copying and designing do not receive all the attention. The plan is 
broadi r in its aims, dealing with drawing as a branch of common-school instruction, 
8384 giving it a wide educational value. 

Correct Methods. — In this system the pupil is led to rely upon himself, and not 
Dpoli delusive mechanical aids, as printed guide-marks, &c. 

One of the principal objects of any good course in freehand drawing is to educate the 
eye to estimate location, form, and size. A system which weakens the motive or re- 
moves the necessity of thinking is false in theory and ruinous in practice. The object 
should lie to educate, not crani ; to develop the intelligence, not teach tricks. 

Artistic Effect —The beauty of the examples is not destroyed by crowding the 
pages with useless and badly printed text. The Manuals contain all necessary 
instruction. 

Stages of Development.— Many of the examples are accompanied by diagrams, 
showing the different stages of development. 

Lithographed Examples. — The examples are printed in imitation of pencil 
drawing iuot in hard, biac* Lues) that the pupil's work may resemble them. 

One Term's Work. — Each book contains what can be accomplished in an average 
term, and no more. 'I bus a pupil finishes one book before beginning another. 

Quality — not Quantity. — Success in drawing depends upon the amount of thought 
exercised liv the pupil, and nut upon the large number of examples drawn. 

Designing. — Elcmentarv design is more skilfully taught in this system than by 
any other. In addition to the instruction given in the books, the pupil will find printed 
on the insides of the covers a variety of beautiful patterns. 

Enlargement and Reduction". — The practice of enlarging and reducing from 
copies is not commenced uutil the pupil is well advanced in the course and therefore 
better able to cope with this difficult feature in drawing. 

Natural Forms. —This is the only course that gives at convenient intervals easy 
and progressive exercises in the drawing of natural forms. 

Economy. — By the patent binding described above, the copies need not lie thrown 
aside when a book is filled out, but are preserved in perfect condition for future use. 
The blank books, only, will have to tie purchased alter the first introduction, thus cflect- 
iug a saving of more than half in the usual cost of drawing-books. 

Manuals for Teachers. —The Manuals accompanying this series contain practical 
instructions for conducting drawing in the class-room, with definite directions for draw- 
ing each of the examples in the books, instructions for designing, model arid object 
drawing, drawing from natural forms, &c. 

38 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

DRAWING — Continued. 

Chapman's American Drawing-Book. 

The standard American text-book and authority in all branches of art. A compilation 
of art principles. A manual for the amateur, and basis of study for the professional 
artist. Adapted for schools and private instruction. 

Contents. — "Any one who can Learn to Write can Learn to Draw. " — Primary In- 
struction in Drawing. — Rudiments of Drawing the Human' Head. — Rudiments in 
Drawing the Human Figure. — Rudiments of Drawing. — The Elements of Geometry. - 
Perspective. — Of Studying and Sketching from Nature. —Of Painting. —Etching and 
Engraving — Of Modelling. — Of Composition. — Advice to the American Art- Student. 

The work is of course magnificently illustrated with all the original designs. 

Chapman's Elementary Drawing-Book. 

A progressive coivrse of practical exercises, or a text-book for the training of the 
eye and band. It contains the elements from the larger work, and a copy should be in 
the bands of every pupil ; while a copy of the " American Drawing-Book," named above, 
should be at hand for reference by the class. 

Clark's Elements of Drawing. 

A complete course in this graceful art, from the first rudiments of outline to the 
finished sketches of landscape and scenery. 

Allen's Map-Drawing and Scale. 

This method introduces a new era in map-drawing, for the following reasons : 1. It 
is a system. This is its greatest merit. — 2. It is easily understood and taught. — 
3. The eye is trained to exact measurement by the use of a scale. — 4. By no special 
effort of "the memory, distance and comparative size are fixed in the mind. — 5. It dis- 
cards useless construction of lines. — 6. It can be taught by any teacher, even though 
there may have been no previous practice in map-drawing. — 7. Any pupil old enough 
to study geography can learn by this system, in a short time, to draw accurate maps. 
— 8. The system is not the result of theory, but comes directly from the school-room. 
It has been thoroughly and successfully tested there, with all grades of pupils. — 9. It 
is economical, as it requires no mapping plates. It gives the pupil the ability of rapidly 
drawing accurate maps. 

FINE ARTS. 

Hamerton's Art Essays (Atlas Series) : — 

Wo. 1. The Practical Work of Painting. 

With portrait of Rubens. Svo. Paper covers. 

No. 2. Modern Schools of Art- 
Including American, English, and Continental Painting. 8vo. Paper covers. 

Huntington's Manual of the Fine Arts. 

A careful manual of instruction in the history of art, up to the present time. 

Boyd's Karnes' Elements of Criticism. 

The best edition of the best work on art and literary criticism ever produced in 
English. 

Benedict's Tour Through Europe. 

A valuable companion for any one wishing to visit the galleries and sights of the 
continent of Europe, as well as a charming book of travels. 

Dwight's Mythology. 

A knowledge of mythology is necessary to an appreciation of ancient art 

Walker's World's Fair. 

The industrial and artistic display at the Centennial Exhibition. 

40 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

BOOK-KEEPING TEXT. 

Powers's Practical Book-keeping. 
Powers's Blanks to Practical Book-keeping. 

A Treatise on Book-keeping, for Public Schools and Academics. By Millard R. 
Powers, SI. A. This work is designed to impart instruction upon the science of accounts, 
as applied to mercantile business, and it is believed that more knowledge, and that, too, 
of a more practical nature, can be gained by the plan introduced in this work, than by 
any other published. 

Folsom's Logical Book-keeping. 
Folsom's Blanks to Book-keeping. 

This treatise embraces the interesting and important discoveries of Professor Folsom (of 
the Albany " Bryant & Stratton College"), the partial enunciation of which in lectures 
and otherwise has attracted so much attention in circles interested in commercial 
education. 

After studying business phenomena for many years, he has arrived at the positive 
laws and principles that underlie the whole subject of accounts ; finds that the science 
is based in value as a generic term ; that value divides into two classes with varied 
species ; that all the exchanges of values are reducible to nine equations ; and that all 
the results of all these exchanges are limited to thirteen in number. 

As accounts have been universally taught hitherto, without setting out from a radical 
analysis or definition of values, the science has been kept in great obscurity, and been 
made as difficult to impart as to acquire. On the new theory, however, these obstacles 
are chiefly removed. In reading over the first part of it, in which the governing laws 
and principles are discussed, a person with ordinary intelligence will obtain a fair con- 
ception of the double-entry process of accounts. But when he comes to study thori Highly 
these laws and principles as there enunciated, and works out the examples and memo- 
randa which elucidate the thirteen results of business, the student will neither fail in 
readily acquiring the science as it is, nor in becoming able intelligently to apply it in 
the interpretation of business. 

Smith and Martin's Book-keeping. 
Smith and Martin's Blanks. 

This work is by a practical teacher and a practical book-keeper. It is of a thoroughly 
popular class, and will be welcomed by every one who loves to see theory and practice 
combined in an easy, concise, and methodical form. 

The single-entry portion is well adapted to supply a want felt in nearly all other 
treatises, which seem to be prepared mainly for the use of wholesale merchants ; 
leaving retailers, mechanics, farmers, &c. , who transact the greater portion of the 
business of the country, without a guide. The work is also commended, on this 
account, for general use in young ladies' seminaries, where a thorough grounding 
in the simpler form of accounts will be invaluable to the future housekeepers of the 
nation. 

The treatise on double-entry book-keeping combines all the advantages of the 
most recent methods with the utmost simplicity of application, thus affording the 
pupil all the advantages of actual experience in the counting-house, and giving a 
clear comprehension of the entire subject through a judicious course of mercantile 
transactions. 

PRACTICAL BOOK-KEEPING. 

Stone's Post-Office Account Book. 

By Micah H. Stone. For record of Box Rents and Postages. Three sizes always in 
stock. 64, 10S, and -204 pages. 

INTEREST TABLES. 

Brooks's Circular Interest Tables. 

To calculate simple and compound interest for any amount, from 1 cent to §1,000, at 
current rates from 1 day to 7 years. 

41 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

DR. STEELE'S ONE-TERM SERIES, 
IN ALL THE SCIENCES. 

Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Chemistry. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Astronomy. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Physics. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Geology. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Physiology. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Zoology. 
Steele's 14-Weeks Course in Botany. 

Our text-books in these studies are, as a geueral thing, dull and uninteresting. 
They contain from 400 to COO pages of dry facts and unconnected details. They abound 
in that which the student cannot learu, much less remember. The pupil commences 
the study, is confused by the hue print and coarse print, and neither knowing exactly 
what to learn nor what to hasten over, is crowded through the single term generally 
assigned to each branch, and frequently comes to the close without a definite and exact 
idea of a single scientific principle. 

Steele's " Fourteen-Weeks Courses " contain only that which every well-informed per- 
son should know, while all that which concerns only the professional scientist is omitted. 
The language is clear, simple, and interesting, and the illustrations bring the subject 
within the range of home life and daily experience. They give such of the general 
principles and the prominent facts as a pupil can make familiar as household words 
within a single term. The type is large and open ; there is no fine print to annoy ; 
the cuts are copies of genuine experiments or natural phenomena, and are of fine 
execution. 

In fine, by a system of condensation peculiarly his own, the author reduces each 
branch to tlie limits of a single term of study, while sacrificing nothing that is essential, 
and nothing that is usually retained from the study of the larger manuals in common 
use. Thus the student has rare opportunity to economize his time, or rather to employ 
that which he has to the best advantage. 

A notable feature is the author's charming "style," fortified by an enthusiasm over 
his subject in which the student will not fail to partake. Believing that Natural 
Science is full of fascination, he has moulded it into a form that attracts the attention 
and kindles the enthusiasm of the pupil. 

The recent editions contain the author's " Practical Questions " on a plan never 
before attempted in scientific text-books. These are questions as to the nature and 
cause of common phenomena, and are not directly answered in the text, the design 
being to test and promote an intelligent use of the student's knowledge of the foregoing 
principles. 

Steele's Key to all His Works. 

This work is mainly composed of answers to the Practical Questions, and solutions of the 
problems, in the author's celebrated " Fourteen-Weeks Courses " in the several sciences, 
with many hints to teachers, minor tables, &c. Should be on every teacher's desk. 

Prof. J. Dorman Steele is an indefatigable student, as well as author, and his books 
have reached a fabulous circulation. It is safe to say of his books that they have 
accomplished more tangible and better results in the class-room than any other ever 
offered to American schools, and have been translated into more languages for foreign 
schools. They are even produced in raised type for the blind. 

42 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

NATURAL SCIENCE — Continued. 

TEMPERANCE PHYSIOLOGY. 

Steele's Abridged Physiology, for Common Schools. 
Steele's Hygienic Physiology, for High Schools. 

With especial reference to alcoholic drinks and narcotics. Adapted from " Fourteen 
Weeks' Course in Human Physiology." By J. Dorman Steele, Ph.D. Edited and 
endorsed for the use of schools (in accordance with the recent legislation upon this 
subject) by the Department of Temperance Instruction of the W. C T. U. of the United 
States, under the direction of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, superintendent. 

This new work contains all the excellent and popular features that have given Dr. 
Steele's Physiology so wide a circulation. Among these, are the following: 

1. Colored Lithographs to illustrate the general facts in Physiology. 

2. Black-board Analysis at the beginning of eacli chapter. These have been 
found of great service in class-work, especially in review and examination. 

3. The Practical Questions at the close of each chapter. These are now too well 
known to require any explanation. 

4. The carefully prepared sections upon the Physiological Action of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Opium, etc. These are scattered through the book as each organ is treated. 
This subject is examined from a purely scientific stand-point, and represents the latest 
teachings at home and abroad. While there is no attempt to incorporate a temperance 
lecture in a school-book, yet the terrible effects of these "Stimulants and Narcotics," 
especially upon the young, are set forth all the more impressively, since the lesson is 
taught merely by the presentation of facts that lean toward no one's prejudices, and 
admit- of no answer or escape. 

5. Throughout the book, there are given, in text and foot-note, experiments that can 
be performed by teacher and pupil, and which, it is hoped, will induce some easy dis- 
sections to be made in every (lass, and lead to that constant, reference of all subjects to 
Nature herself, which is so invaluable in scientific study. 

6. The collection of recent discoveries, interesting facts, etc., in numerous foot- 
notes. 

7. The unusual space given to the subject of Ventilation, which is now attracting 
so much attention throughout the country. 

8. The text is brought up to the level of the new Physiological views. The division 
into short, pithy paragraphs; the bold paragraph headings; the clear, large type ; the 
simple presentation of each subject ; the interesting style that begets in every child a 
love of the study, and the beautiful cuts, each having a full scientific description and 
nomenclature, so as to present the thing before the pupil.without cumbering the text 
with the dry details, — all these indicate the work of the practical teacher, and will be 
appreciated in every school-room. 

Mrs. Hunt's Child's Health Primer. 

For the youngest scholars. 12mo, cloth, illustrated. 

Mrs. Hunt's Hygiene, for Young People. 

Prepared under the supervision of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, Superintendent of the 
Department of Scientific Instruction of the " Women's National Christian Temperance 
Union." Examined and approved by A. B. Palmer, M.D., University of Michigan. 

Jarvis's Elements of Physiology. 
Jarvis's Physiology and Laws of Health. 

The only books extant which approach this subject with a proper view of the true 
object of teaching Physiology in schools, viz., that scholars may know how to take care 
of their own health. In bold contrast with the abstract Anatomies, which children 
learn as they would Greek or Latin (and forget as soon), to disriptin. the mind,, are these 
text-books, using the science as a secondary consideration, and only so far as is neces- 
sary for the comprehension of the laws of Iwalth. 

u 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARO SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



THE NEW GANOT. 

Introductory Course of Natural Philosophy. 

This book was originally edited from Ganot's " Popular Physics," by William G. 
Peck, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, Columbia College, and of 
Mechanics in the School of Mines. It has recently been revised by Levi S. Bur- 
bank, A. M., late Principal of Warren Academy, Woburn, Mass., and James I. Hanson, 
A.M., Principal of the High School, Woburn, Mass. 

Of elementary works those of M. Ganot stand pre-eminent, not only as popular 
treatises, but as thoroughly scientific expositions of the principles of Physics. His 
" Traite de Physique " has not only met with unprecedented success in France, but has 
been extensively used in the preparation of the best works on Physics that have been 
issued from the American press. 

In addition to the "Traite de Physique," which is intended for the use of colleges 
and higher institutions of learning, M. Ganot published this more elementary work, 
adapted to the use of schools and academies, in which he faithfully preserved the 
promment features and all the scientific accuracy of the larger work. It is charcter- 
ized by a well-balanced distribution of subjects, a logical development of scientific 
principles, and a remarkable clearness of definition and explanation. In addition, it is 
profusely illustrated with beautifully executed engravings, admirably calculated to 
convey to the mind of the student a clear conception of the principles unfolded. Their 
completeness and accuracy are such as to enable the teacher to dispense with much of 
the apparatus usually employed in teaching the elements of Physical Science. 

After several years of great popularity the American publishers have brought this 
important book thoroughly up to the times. The death of the accomplished educator, 
Professor Burbank, took place before he had completed his work, and it was thru 
taken in hand by his friend, Professor Hanson, who was familiar with his plans, and 
iias ably and satisfactorily brought the work to completion. 

The essential characteristics and general plan of the book have, so far as possible, 
been retained, but at the same time many parts have been entirely rewritten, much 
new matter added, a large number of new cuts introduced, and the whole treatise 
thoroughly revised and brought into harmony with the present advanced stage of sci- 
entific discovery. 

Among the new features designed to aid in teaching the subject-matter are the 
summaries of topics, which, it is thought, will be found very convenient in short 
reviews. 

As many teachers prefer to prepare their own questions on the text, and many do not 
have time to spend in the solution of problems, it has been deemed expedient to insert 
both the review questions and problems at the end of the volume, to be used or not at 
the discretion of the instructor. 



From the Churchman. 

" No department of science has under- 
gone so many improvements and changes 
in the. last quarter of a century as that of 
natural philosophy. So many and so im- 
portant have been the discoveries and 
inventions in every branch of it that 
everything seems changed but its funda- 
mental principles. Ganot has chapter 
upon chapter upon subjects that were not 
so much as known by name to Olmsted ; 
and here we have Ganot, first edited by 
Professor Peck, and afterward revised by 
the late Mr. Burbank and Mr. Hanson. No 
elementary works upon philosophy have 
been superior to those of Ganot, either as 
popular treatises or as scientific exposi- 
tions of the principles of physics, and 
his ' Traite de Physique ' has not only had 
a great success in France, but has been 
freely used in this country in the prepa- 
ration of American books upon the sub- 



jects of which it treats. That work was 
intended for higher institutions of learn- 
ing, and Mr. Ganot prepaier" a more 
elementai'y work for schools <md acade- 
mies. It is as scientifically accurate as 
the larger work, and is chaiacterized by 
a logical development of scientific princi- 
ples, by clearness of definition and expla- 
nation, by a proper distribution of sub- 
jects, and by its admirable engravings. 
We here have Ganot's work enhancedin 
value by the labors of Professor Peck and of 
Messrs. Burbank and Hanson, and brought 
up to our own times. The essential char- 
acteristics of Ganot's work have been re- 
tained, but much of the book has been 
rewritten, and many new cuts have been 
introduced, made necessary by the prog- 
ress of scientific discovery. The short 
reviews, the questions on the text, and 
the problems given for solution are desir- 
able additions to a work of this kind, and 
will give the book increased popularity." 



45 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



FAMILIAR SCIENCE. 

Norton & Porter's First Book of Science. 

Sets forth the principles of Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry, Fhysiolo 'y, 
and Geology, on the catechetical plan for primary classes an I beginners. 

Chambers's Treasury of Knowledge. 

Progressive lessons upon — first, common things which lie most immediately around 
us, and first attract the attention of the young mind ; second, common objects from tin; 
mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms, manufactured articles, and miscellaneous 
substances ; third, a systematic view of nature under the various sciences. May be 
used as a reader or text- book. 

Monteith's Easy Lessons in Popular Science. 

This book combines within its covers more attractive features for the study of science 
by children than any other book published. It is a reading book, spelling book, com- 
position book, drawing book, geography, history, book on botany, zoology, agricul- 
ture, manufactures, commerce, and natural philosophy. All these subjects are presented 
in a simple and etl'ective. style, such as would be adopted by a good teacher on an 
excursion with a class. The class are supposed to be taking excursions, with the help 
of a large pictorial chart of geography, which can be suspended before them in the 
school-room. A key of the chart is inserted in every copy of the book. With this 
book the science of common or familiar things can be taught to beginners. 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 

Norton's First Book in Natural Philosophy. 
Peck's Elements of Mechanics. 

A suitable introduction to Bartle.tt's higher treatises on Mechanical Philosophy, and 
adequate in itself for a complete academical course. 

Bartlett's Analytical Mechanics. 
Bartlett's Acoustics and Optics. 

A complete system of Collegiate Philosophy, by Prof. W. H. C. Bartlett, of West 

Point Military Academy. 

Steele's Physics. 

Peck's Ganot. 

GEOLOGY. 

Page's Elements of Geology. 

A volume of Chambers's Educational Course. Practical, simple, and eminently 
calculated to make the study interesting. 

Steele's Geology. 

CHEMISTRY. 

Porter's First Book of Chemistry. 
Porter's Principles of Chemistry. 

The above are widely known as the productions of one of the most eminent scientific, 
men of America. The extreme simplicity in the method of presenting the science, whilo 
exhaustively treated, has excited universal commendation. 

Gregory's Chemistry (Organic and Inorganic). 2 vols. 

The science exhaustively treated. For colleges and medical students. 

Steele's Chemistry. 

47 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



NATURAL SCIENCE — Continued. 



BOTANY. 

Wood's Object-Lessons in Botany. 
Wood's American Botanist and Florist. 
Wood's New Class-Book of Botany. 

The standard text-books of the United States in this department. In style they are 
simple, popular, and lively ; in arrangement, easy and natural ; in description, graphic 
and scientific. The Tables for Analysis are reduced to a perfect system. They include 
the flora of the whole United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and are well adapted 
to the regions west. 

Wood's Descriptive Botany. 

A complete flora of all plants growing east of the Mississippi River. 

Wood's Illustrated Plant Record. 

A simple form of blanks for recording observations in the field. 

Wood's Botanical Apparatus. 

A portable trunk, containing drying press, knife, trowel, microscope, and tweezers, 
and a copy of Wood's " Plant Record," — die collector's complete outfit. 

Willis's Flora of New Jersey. 

The most useful book of reference e-cr published for collectors in all parts of the 
country. It contains also a Botanical Directory, with addresses of living American 
botanists. 

Young's Familiar Lessons in Botany. 

Combining simplicity of diction with some degree of technical and scientific knowl- 
edge, lor intermediate classes. Specially adapted lor the Southwest. 

Wood & Steele's Botany. 

See page 33. 



AGRICULTURE. 

Pendleton's Scientific Agriculture. 

A text-book for colleges and schools ; treats of the following topics : Anatomy and 
Physiology of Plants ; Agricultural Meteorology ; Soils as related to Physics ; Chemistry 
of the Atmosphere ; of Plants ; of Soils ; Fertilizers and Natural Manures ; Animal Nu- 
trition, &c. By E. M. Pendleton, M. D., Professor of Agriculture in the University of 
Georgia. 



From President A. D. White, Cornell 
University. 
" Dear Sir : I have examined your 
' Text-book of Agricultural Science,' and it 
seems to me excellent in view of the pur- 
pose it is intended to serve. Many of 
your chapters interested me especially, 
and all parts of the work seem to combine 
scientific instruction with practical infor- 
mation in proportions dictated by sound 
common sense." 



From President Robinson, of Brown 
University. 
" It is scientific in method as well as in 
matter, comprehensive in plan, natural 
and logical in order, compact and lucid in 
its statements, and must be useful both as 
a text-book in agricultural colleges, and 
as a hand-book for intelligent planters ami 
farmers." 



48 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 
NATURAL SCIENCE— Continued. 

ASTRONOMY. 

Peck's Popular Astronomy. 

By Wm. G. Peck, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Mathematics, Mechanics, and Astron- 
omy in Columbia College. 12mo. Cloth. 330 pages. 

Professor Peek has here produced a scientific work in brief form for colleges, acade- 
mies, and high schools. Teachers who do not wart an elementary work — like Steele's 
Astronomy, for instance — will find what they want in this book. Its discussion of the 
Stars, Solar System, Earth, Moon, Sun and Planets, Eclipses, Tides. Calendars, Planets 
and Satellites, Comets and Meteors, &c, is full and satisfactory. The illustrations are 
numerous and very carefully engraved, so the student can gain an accurate comprehen- 
sion of the tilings represented. Professor Peek is wonderfully clear and concise in his 
style of writing, and there is nothing redundant or obscure in this work. It is intended 
for popular as well as class use, and accordingly avoids too great attention to mathe- 
matical processes, which are introduced in smaller type than the regular text. For 
higher schools this astronomy is undoubtedly the best text-book yet published. 

Willard's School Astronomy. 

By means of clear and attractive illustrations, addressing the eye in many cases by 
analogies, careful definitions of all necessary technical terms, a careful avoidance, of 
verbiage and unimportant matter, particular attention to analysis, and a general adop- 
tion of the simplest methods, Mrs. Willard has made the best and most attractive 
elementary Astronomy extant. 

Mclntyre's Astronomy and the Globes. 

A complete treatise for intermediate classes. Highly approved. 

Bartlett's Spherical Astronomy. 

The West Point Course, for advanced classes, with applications to the current wants 
of Navigation, Geography, and Chronology. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 

Carll's Child's Book of Natural History. 

Illustrating the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, with application to the 
arts. For beginners. Beautifully and copiously illustrated. 

Anatomical Technology. Wilder & Gage. 

As applied to the domestic cat. For the use of students of medicine. 



ZOOLOGY. 

Chambers's Elements of Zoology. 

A complete and comprehensive system of Zoology, adapted for academic instruction, 
presenting a systematic view of the animal kingdom as a portion of external nature. 



ROADS AND RAILROADS. 

Gillespie's Roads and Railroads. 

Tenth Edition. Edited bv Cadv Staley, A.M., C E. 464 pages. ]2mo. Cloth. 

This book has long been and still is the standard manual of the principles and prac- 
tice of Road-making, comprising the location, const ruction, and improvement ol roads 
(common, macadam, paved, plank, See ) and railroads. It was compiled by Wm. 
Gillespie, LL.D., C.E , of Union College. 

49 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



PHONOGRAPHY. 

Eames's Light-Line Short-Hand. 

By Rnscoe L. Eanies. 248 pages. 12mo. Cloth. 

This book presents a practical phonetic system, without shading. It is prepared to 
meet the requirements of business, corresponding, and verbatim reporting. It is 
especially adapted to the use of schools and colleges. It gives a vocabulary of more 
than 4,500 words and phrases. The illustrations are very numerous, and both in 
variety and quantity are unprecedented. There are 58 pages of engraved short-hand 
matter for practice-copies. The book is highly endorsed, and the system is the best 
and shortest known. 

COMPOSITION AND RHETORIC. 

Brookfield's First Book in Composition. 

Making the cultivation of this important art feasible for the smallest child. By a 
new method, to induce and stimulate thought. 

Boyd's Composition and Rhetoric. 

This work furnishes all the aid that is needful or can be desired in the various 
departments and styles of composition, both in prose and verse. 

Day's Art of Rhetoric. 

Noted for exactness of definition, clear limitation, and philosophical development of 
subject ; the large share of attention given to invention, as a branch of rhetoric, and 
the uuequalled analysis of style. 

Bardeen's Sentence-Making. 
Bardeen's Complete Rhetoric. 

The plan of this treatise is wholly novel, and is its most characteristic feature. 

The author begins with Sentence-Making, which is to rhetoric what carpentry or 
masonry is to architecture, — not properly a part of it, but to be absolutely mastered, 
so that the architect's ideas may be carried out with promptness and precision. 

This "handicraft," so to speak, having been acquired, the student is ready to apply 
it according to the rules of the art. Where first? He is required to converse almost 
constantly, and he has already learned that it is sometimes difficult to converse well. 
Let him see that the rules of rhetoric apply primarily to the every-day talk in which 
he is engaged, and rhetoric becomes a real thing. Accordingly, the author follows with 
a full and familiar treatment of Conversation. 

As all must talk, so nearly all must write letters of one kind or another ; and the 
second part of the book is devoted to Letter-Writing. In itself this subject is 
treated with incisive directness and practical force, business letters receiving special 
attention. 

With the Essay arises a new necessity, — of formal invention. The author clearly 
shows that a distinct part of what is often called " inspiration " in writing comes from 
hard labor under fixed rules here laid down ; that this labor is indispensable even to 
respectable writing, and that without this labor no production is worthy to be called 
an essay. 

The Oration introduces anew feature, — the oral delivery to an audience, with all 
the principles of articulation, emphasis, gesture, and other principles usually referred 
to elocution as a distinct subject. The discussion of extempore speaking is remarkably 
terse and helpful. 

Finally comes the Poem, more briefly treated, with the most important directions 
as to Rhythm and Rhyme. 

Here we have then six distinct parts, — Sentence-Making, Conversation, Letter- 
Writing, the Essay, the Oration, and the Poem. 

When all this is taken into consideration, the book seems small instead of large, 
and we must wonder how so much was got into so little space. 

50 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 




LITERATURE. 

Gilman's First Steps in English Literature. 

The character and plan of this exquisite little text-book may be best understooo irom 
an analysis of its contents : Introduction. Historical Period of Immature English, 
with Chart ; Definition of Terms ; Languages of Europe, with Chart ; Period of Mature 
English, with Chart ; a Chart of Bible Translations, a Bibliography or Guide to General 
Reading, and other aids to the student. 

Cleveland's Compendiums. 3 vols. 12mo. 

English Literature. American Literature. 

English Literature of the XIXth Century. 

In these volumes are gathered the cream of the literature of the English-speaking 
people for the school-room and the general reader. Their reputation is national. More 
than 1:25,000 copies have been sold. 

Boyd's English Classics. 6 vols. Cloth. 12mo. 

Milton's Paradise Lost. Thomson's Seasons 

Young's Night Thoughts. Pollok's Course of Time. 

Cowtek's Task, Table Talk, &c. Lord Bacon's Essays. 
This series of annotated editions of great English writers in prose and poetry is 
designed for critical reading and parsing in schools. Prof. J. R. Boyd proves himself 
an editor of high capacity, and the works themselves need no encomium. As auxiliary 
to the study of belles-lettres, &c, these works have no equal. 

Pope's Essay on Man. 16mo. Paper. 
Pope's Homer's Iliad. 32mo. Roan. 

The metrical translation of the great poet of antiquity, and the matchless "Essay on 
the Nature and State of Man," by Alexander Pope, afford superior exercise in literature 
and parsing. 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

Champlin's Lessons on Political Economy. 

An improvement on previous treatises, being shorter, yet containing everything 
essential, with a view of recent questions in finance, &c., which is not elsewhere 
found. 

61 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



AESTHETICS. 

Huntington's Manual of the Fine Arts 

A view of the rise and progress of art in different countries, n brief account of the 
most eminent masters of art, and an analysis of the principles 01 art. It is complete 
in itself, or may precede to advantage the critical work of Lord Karnes. 

Boyd's Karnes's Elements of Criticism. 

The best edition of this standard work ; without the study of which none may be 
considered proficient in the science of the perceptions. No other study can be pursued 
with so marked an effect upon the taste and refinement of the pupiL 



ELOCUTION. 

Watson's Practical Elocution. 

A scientific presentment of accepted principles of elocutionary drill, with black- 
board diagrams and lull collection of examples for class drill. Cloth. 90 pages, 12mo. 

Taverner Graham's Reasonable Elocution. 

Based upon the belief that true elocution is the right interpretation of thought, 
and guiding the student to an intelligent appreciation, instead of a merely mechanical 
knowledge, of its rules. 

Zachos's Analytic Elocution. 

All departments of elocution — such as the analysis of the voice and the sentence, 
phonology, rhythm, expression, gesture, &c. — are here arranged for instruction in 
classes, illustrated by copious examples. 



SPEAKERS. 

Northend's Little Orator. 
Northend's Child's Speaker. 

Two little works of the same grade but different selections, containing simple and 
attractive pieces for children under twelve years" of age. 

Northend's Young Declaimer. 
Northend's National Orator. 

Two volumes of prose, poetry, and dialogue, adapted to intermediate and grammar 
classes respectively. 

Northend's Entertaining Dialogues. 

Extracts eminently adapted to cultivate the dramatic faculties, as well as entertain. 

Oakey's Dialogues and Conversations. 

For school exercises and exhibitions, combining useful instruction. 

James's Southern Selections, for Reading and Oratory. 

Embracing exclusively Southern literature. _ 

Swett's Common School Speaker. 
Raymond's Patriotic Speaker. 

A superb compilation of modern eloquence and poetry, with original dramatic 
exercises. Nearly every eminent modern orator is represented. 

52 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOh'S. 



MIND. 

Mahan's Intellectual Philosophy. 

The subject exhaustively considered. The author has evinced learning, candor, and 
independent thinking. 

Mahan's Science of Logic. 

A profound analysis of the laws of thought. The system possesses the merit of being 
intelligible and self-consistent. In addition to the. author's carefully elaborated views, 
it embraces results attained by the ablest minds of Great Britain, Germany, and France, 
in this department. 

Boyd's Elements of Logic. 

A systematic and philosophic condensation of the subject, fortified with additions 
from Watts, Abercrombie, Whately, &c. 

Watts on the Mind. 

The " Improvement of the Mind," by Isaac Watts, is designed as a guide for the 
attainment of useful knowledge. As a text-book it is unparalleled ; and the discipline 

it affords cannot be too highly esteemed by the educator. 



MORALS. 



Peabody's Moral Philosophy. 

A short course, by the Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University, for the 
Freshman class and for high schools. 

Butler's Analogy. Hobart's Analysis. 

Edited by Prof. Charles E. West, of Brooklyn Heights Seminary. 228 pages. 16mo. 
Cloth. 

Alden's Text-Book of Ethics. 

For young pupils. To aid in systematizing the ethical teachings of the Bible, and 
point out the coincidences between the instructions of the sacred volume and the sound 
conclusions of reason. 

Smith's Elements of Moral Philosophy. 

140 pages. 12mo. Cloth. By Wm. Austin Smith, A.M.j Ph.D., Professor of Moral 
Philosophy in the Columbia (Tenn.) Athenseum. 

This is an excellent book for the use of academies and schools. It is prepared to 
meet the wants of a much larger public than has heretofore been reached by works of 
this class. The subject is presented in clear and simple language, and will be found 
adapted to the comprehension of yonng pupils, at a time when they particularly need 
an insight into the laws which govern the moral world. 

Janet's Elements of Morals. 

By Paul Janet. Translated by Mrs. Prof. Corson, of Cornell University. 

The Elements of Morals is one of a series of works chiefly devoted to Ethics, and 
tie its of practical, rather than theoretical morality. 

Mr. Janet is too well known that it be necessary to call attention to his excellence 
as a moral writer, and it will be sufficient to say that what particularly recommends 
the Elements of Morals to educators and students in general is the admirable adap- 
tation Of the book to college and school purposes. 

Besides the systematic and scholarly arrangement of its parts, it contains series of 
examples and illustrations — anecdotic, historical — gathered with rare impartiality 
from both ancient and modern writers, and which impart a peculiar life and interest to 
the subject, 

Another feature of the work is its sound religious basis. Mr. Janet is above all 
a religious moralist. 

53 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



GOVERNMENT. 

Howe's Young Citizen's Catechism. 

Explaining the duties of district, town, city, county, State, and United States 
officers, with rules for parliamentary and commercial business. 

Young's Lessons in Civil Government. 

A comprehensive view of Government, and abstract of the laws showing the rights, 
duties, and responsibilities of citizens. 

Mansfield's Political Manual. 

This is a complete view of the theory and practice of the General and State Govern- 
ments, designed as a text-book. The author is an esteemed and able professor of con- 
stitutional law, widely known for his sagacious utterances in the public press. 

Martin's Civil Government. 

Emanating from Massachusetts State Normal School. Historical and statistical. 
Each chapter summarized by a succinct statement of underlying principles on which 
good government is based. 

Gallaudet's International Law. 

Published in 1879, and the only work bringing the subject within the compass of a 
convenient text-book 

Antebellum Constitutions. 

A complete collection of State and Federal Constitutions as they stood before the 
Civil War of 1S61. With an essay on changes made during the reconstruction period, 
by Wilmut L. Warren. 



PUNCTUATION. 

Cocker's Handbook of Punctuation. 

With instructions for capitalization, letter- writing, and proof-reading. Most works 
on this subject are so abstruse and technical that the unprofessional reader finds them 
difFfcult (if comprehension ; but this little treatise is so simple and comprehensive that 
persons of very ordinary intelligence can readily understand and apply its principles. 



ANATOMY. 

Anatomical Technology as Applied to theDomestic Cat. 

An introduction to human, veterinary, and comparative anatomy. A practical work 
for students and teachers. 600 pages. 130 figures, and four lithograph plates. By 
Burt G. Wilder and Simon H. Gage, Professors in Cornell University. 

" Instructions in the best method of 
dissection and study of each organ and 
region. " — American Veterinary Review. 



" A valuable manual, at once author- 
itative in statement and admirable in 
method." — American Journal of Medical 
Science. 

" Well adapted to the purpose for whicn 
it has been written." — Nature. 



5-1 



"The student who will carefully dissect 
a few cats according to the rules given in 
this book will have a great advantage over 
the one who begins his work with the 
human body ; and if he will master the in- 
structions for the various methods of 
preparation, he will know more than most 
graduates in medicine." — The Boston 
Medical ami Surgical Journal. 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

MODERN LANGUAGES. 

A COMPLETE COURSE IN THE GERMAN. 

By James H. Worman, A.M., Professor of Modern Languages in the Adelphi Acad- 
emy, Brooklyn, L. I. 

Worman's First German Book. 
Worman's Second German Book. 
Worman's Elementary German Grammar. 
Worman's Complete German Grammar. 

These volumes are designed for intermediate and advanced classes respectively. 

Though following the same general method with " Otto " (that of " Guspey ''), our 
author differs essentially in its application. He is more practical, more systematic 
more accurate, and besides introduces a number of invaluable features which have 
never before been combined in a German grammar. 

Among other things, it may be claimed for Professor Worman that he has been tin 
first to introduce, in an American text-book for learning German, a system of analogy and 
comparison with other languages. Our best teachers are also enthusiastic about his 
methods of inculcating the art of speaking, of understanding the spoken language, of 
correct pronunciation ; the sensible and convenient original classification of nouns (in 
four declensions), and of irregular verbs, also deserves much praise. We also note the 
use of heavy type to indicate etymological changes in the paradigms and, in the exer- 
cises, the parts which specially illustrate preceding rules. 

Worman's Elementary German Reader. 
Worman's Collegiate German Reader. 

The finest and most judicious compilation of classical and standard German literature. 
These works embrace, progressively arranged, selections from the masterpieces of 
Goethe, Schiller, Korner, Seunie, Uhland, Freiligrath, Heine, Schlegel, Holty, Lenau, 
Wieland, Herder, Lessing, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Winkelmann, Humboldt, Ranke, 
Raumer, Menzel, Gervinus, &c. , and contain complete Goethe's " Iphigenie," Schiller's 
"Jungfrau;" also, for instruction in modern conversational German, Benedix's 
" Eigensinn." 

There are, besides, biographical sketches of each author contributing, notes, explan- 
atory and philological (after the text), grammatical reierences to all leading grammars, 
as well as the editor's own, md an adequate Vocabulary. 

Worman's German Echo. 

Worman's German Copy-Books, 3 Numbers. 

On the same plan as the most approved systems for English penmanship, with 
progressive copies. 

CHaUTAUQUA SERIES. 
First and Second Books in German. 

By the natural or Pestalozzian System, for teaching the language without the help 
of the Learner's Vernacular. By James H. Worman, A. M. 

These books belong to the new Chautauqua German Language Series, and are in- 
tended for beginners learning to speak German. The peculiar features of its method 
are : — 

1. It teaches the language by direct appeal to illustrations of the objects 
referred to, and docs not allow the Btudent to guess what is said, lie speaks from the 
first hour understandinglv and accurately. Therefore, 

2. Grammar is taught both analytically and synthetically throughout flu 
course. The beginning is made with the auxiliaries of tense and mood, because their 
kinship with the English makes them easily intelligible ; then follow the declensions ,if 
nouns, articles, and other parts of speech, always systematically arranged. It is easy 
to confuse the pupil by giving him one person or one case at a time. This pernicious 
practice is discarded. Books that beget unsystematic habits of thought are worse than 
wortMess. 

55 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



MODERN LANGUAGES — Continued. 



3. The rules are introduced after the examples; the purpose being to em ploy- 
first the lower or sense faculty of the mind. 

4. Everything- is taught by contrast and association, to avoid overtaxing the 
memory at the expense of me reason. 

5. The lessons convey much practical varied information, and engage the ob- 
serving as well as the thinking faculties of the learner s mind. 

In short, this brief series contains within its few pages all the essentials of German 1 ! 
Grammar so presented that their mastery is easy, and the student prepared upon its! 
completion to enter upon the study of the more recondite, complicated, and irregular 
principles of the language. 



From Prof. Schele de Vere, author of a 
French Grammar, Studies in English, &c, 
&c, University of Virginia, Va. 

Prof. James H. Worman. 

My dear Sir, — Your very liberal pub- 
lishers (Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co.) have 
done me the honor to send me a copy of 
your excellent works, The First French and 
the Second German Book. It needed 
no introduction in the shape of compli- 
mentary notices sans nombres to call my 
attention to the eminent merits of these 
valuable publications. But I was sin- 
cerely glad that the public, at large, as 
well as me, confreres litteraires dans ce 
departement de la Linguistique, have at 
length discerned the great advantages of 
your method, and enabled you and your 
publishers to bring out your works in a 
style so truly in sympathy with the in- 
trinsic value of the different volumes. 

Most unfortunately — for how I should 
delight to wield such exquisitely shaped 
ami sharpened instruments to make my 
way into thick crania and dense brains ! 
— our university way of teaching does 
not admit of the admirable method pre- 
scribed in your volumes. The laws of 
the Medea are as Irreversible here as the 
Decrees of Mr. Jefferson, and when I fan- 
cied I had obtained the victory, I found 
myself faced by a stern decree. All I can 
do, therefore, is to recommend your works 
most earnestly and most urgently, in the 
point of economy, to my young graduates, 
hundreds of whom leave us every harvest 
time, to scatter their seeds broadcast over 
the vast fields of the South, and to profess 
boldly their adherence to the confessions 
of their teachers. 

Wishing you heartily the best success, 
and hoping that I shall be able hereafter 
also modestly to assist you, I remain, very 
sincerely yours, Schele De Vere. 

From Head Master, Boston (Mass.) Normal 
School. 
Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., — I want to 
thank you for the copies of those beautiful 



little books for beginners in German and 
French prepared by Professor Worman. 
The Professor is taking his pupils 
along the right road rapidly and delight- 
fully. 

Whatever may be said of the tedious- 
ness of learning the grammar of a new 
language, I think all will agree that the 
great labor is mastering the vocabulary. 
And it is just at this point that 1 think 
these books are of great use. The exercises 
are sodeveloped out of pictured objects and 
actions, and are so well graduated that 
almost from the very outset they go alone. 
A beginner would have little use for 
a dictionary in reading the " First French 
Book;*' and yet the words are so introduced 
and so often used, that the meaning is 
kept constantly before the mind, without 
the intervention of a translation By tiiis 
means the pupil soon makes them his 
permanent possession. 

A dozen volumes as well graduated as 
these would do much to give the student 
an extended vocabulary. I trust Professor 
Worman will continue his good work. 
Yours very truly, 

L. Dunton. 

From Mr. R. T. Taylor, of Beaver, Pa. 

Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co. 

Dear Sirs, — Your kindness iu sending 
books appreciated- I have examined Pro- 
fessor Worman's " First French Book "and 
I think it the best thing of the kind I have 
ever seen. There is just enough of the 
grammar combined to make the natural 
method practicable. I shall introduce 
the work into my school this fall. We have 
been using Proiessor Worman's German 
books and are very much pleased with 
them. The " Echo," in particular, de- 
lights pupils. They make more advance- 
ment in one year by this method than in 
two by the old manner of teaching. 

Wishing you success in your business, 
I am 

Yours very truly, 

R. T. Taylof- 



56 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



FRENCH. 

Worman's First French Book. 

On same plan as the German and Spanish. The scholar reads and speaks from the 
first hour tinders andingly and accurately. S3 pages. 

Worman's Second French Book. 

Continues the work of the First Book, and is a valuable Elementary French Reader. 
96 pages. 

Worman's Le Questionnaire. 

Exercises on the First French Book. OS pages. Cloth. 

Worman's Grammaire Francaise. 

Written in simple French, but based on English analogy. It therefore dwells upon the 
Essentials, especially those which point out the variations of the French from the 
student's vernacular. 1S4 pp. 

Worman's Teacher's Hand-Book. 

Or Key to the Grammaire Francaise. 

Worman's French Echo. 

This is not a mass of meaningless and parrot-like phrases thrown together for 
a tourist's use, to bewilder him when in the presence of a Frenchman. 

The " Echo de Paris " is a strictly progressive conversational book, beginning with sim- 
ple phrases and leading by frequent repetition to a mastery of the idioms and of the 
every-day language used in business, on travel, at a hotel, in the chit-chat o( 
society. 

It presupposes an elementary knowledge of the language, such as may be acquired 
from the First French Book by Professor Worrnan, and furnishes a running French 
text, allowing the learner of course to find the meaning of the words (in the appended 
Vocabulary), aud forcing him, by the absence of English in the text, to think in 
French. 



Cher Monsieur Worman, — Vous me 
demandezinon opiuion sur votre " Ecliode 
Paris" et quel usage j'en fais. Je ne 
saurais mieux vous repondre qu'en repro- 
duisant une lettre que j'eerivais derniere- 
ment a nn oollegue qui etait, me disait-il, 
" bien fatigue de ces insipides livres de 
dialogues. " 

" Vous ne connaissez done pas," lui 
disais-je, " 'l'Echo de Paris,' edite par le 
Professor Worman ? C'est un veritable 
tivsor, merveilleusement adapte au devel- 
oppement de la conversation familiere et 
pratique, telle qu'on la vent aujourd'hui. 
Get excellent livre met successivement en 
scene, d'une mauiere vive et interessante, 



tontes les circonstances possibles de la vie 
ordinaire. Voyez l'immense avantage 
il vous transporte en France ; du premier 
mot, .je m'imagine, et mes eleves avec raoi, 
que nous sommes a Paris, dans la rue. sin 
unc place, dans une gare, dans un salon, 
dans une chambre, voire meme a la cui- 
sine ; je parle couiine avec des Frangais ; 
les eleves ne songent p:ts a traduire de 
l'anglais pour me repondre ; ils pensent 
en frangais : ils sont Frangais pour le 
moment par les yeux, parl'oreille, par la 
pensee Quel autre livre pourrait produire 
cette illusion? ..." 

Votre tout uevoue, 

A. DE RoUGEHONT. 



Illustrated Language Primers. 

French and English. German and English. 
Spanish and English. 

The names of common objects properly illustrated and arranged in easy lessons. 

Pujol's Complete French Class-Book. 

Offers in one volume, methodically arranged, a complete French course — usually 
embraced in series of from live to twelve books, including the bulky and expensive 
lexicon. Here are grammar, conversation, and choice literature, selected from the 
best French authors. Each branch is thoroughly bandied; and the student, having 
diligently completed tlie course as prescribed, may consider himself, without further 
application, au fait iu the most polite and elegant language of modern times. 

57 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



MODERN LANGUAGES — Continued. 

Pujol's French Grammar, Exercises, Reader. 3 vols. 

These volumes contain Part I., Parts II. and 111., and Part IV. o. the Complete Class- 
Book respectively, for the convenience of scholars and teachers. The Lexicon is bound 
with each part. 

Maurice-Poitevin's Grammaire Francaise. 

American schools are at last supplied with an American edition of this famous text- 
booK. Many of our best institutions have for years been procuring it from abroad 
rather than forego the advantages it offers. The policy of putting students who have 
acquired some proficiency from the ordinary text-books, into a Grammar written in the 
vernacular, cannot be too highly commended. It affords an opportunity for finish and 
review at once, while embodying abundant practice of its own rules. 



SPANISH. 



Worman's First Spanish Book. 

On same plan as Worman's first German and French Books. Teaches by direct ap- 
peal to illustrations, and by contrast, association, and natural inference. 96 pp. 

These little books work marvels in the school-room. The exercises are so developed 
out of pictured objects and actions, and are so well graduated, that almost from the 
very otitset they go alone. A beginner would 3utve little use for a dictionary in reading. 
The words are so introduced, and so often used, that the meaning is kept constantly 
before the mind, without the intervention of a translation. 

Other Spanish Books to follow. 



ANCIENT LANGUAGES. 



LATIN. 



Searing's Virgil's ^Eneid, Georgics, and Bucolics. 

1. It contains the first six books of the jEneid and the entire Bucolics and Georgics. 
2. A very carefully constructed Dictionary. 3. Sufficiently copious notes. 4. Gram- 
matical references to four leading Grammars. 5. Numerous illustrations of the highest 
order. G. A superb map of the Mediterranean and adjacent countries. 7. Dr. S. H. 
Taylor's "Questions on the TEneid." 8. A Metrical Index, and an essay on the 
Poetical Style. 9. A photographic facsimile of an early Latin MS. 10. The text is 
according to Jahn, but paragraphed according to Ladewig. 11. Superior mechanical 
execution. 



" My attention was called to Searing's 
Virgil by the fact of its containing a vo- 
cabulary which would obviate the neces- 
sity of procuring a lexicon. But use in 
the class-room has impressed me most 
favorably with the accuracy and just pro- 
portion of its notes, and the general ex- 
cellence of its grammatical suggestions. 
The general character of the book, in its 

Johnson's Persius. 

The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaecus, edited, with English notes, principally from 
Coninirton. By Henry Clark Johnson, A. M., LL.B., Professor of Latin in the Lehigh 
University. 

58 



paper, its typography, and its engravings, 
is higlily commendable, and the jac-simile 
manuscript is a valuable feature. I take 
great pleasure in commending the book to 
all who do not wish a complete edition of 
Virgil. It suits our short school courses 
admirably." Henry L. Bolt wood, Mus- 
ter Princeton High School, III. 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

SCHOOL MUSIC. 

Ryan's Vocalist. 

A new singing book fur Graded Schools, Seminaries and social assemblies 232 Dices 
long Svo, cloth. i o • . 

The National School Singer. 

Bright, new music for the day school, embracing .Sung Lessons, Exercise Songs, Songs 
of Study. Order, Promptuess, and Obedience, of Industry and Nature, Patriotic and 
Temperance Songs, Opening and Closing Songs ; in fact, everything needed in the 
school-room. By an eminent musician and composer. 

Jepson's Music Readers. 3 vols. 

These are not books rum which children simply learn songs, parrot-like, bnt teach 
the subject progressively, the scholar learning to read music by methods similar to 
those employed in teaching him to read printed language. Any teacher, however igno- 
rant of music, provided he can, upon trial, simply sound the scale, may teach it without 
assistance, and will end by being a good singer himself. The " Elementary Music 
Reader," or first volume, fully develops the system. The two companion volumes carry 
the same method into the higher grades, but their use is not essential. 

The First Reader is also published in three parts, at thirty cents each, for those who 
prefer them in that form. 

Nash and Bristow's Cantara. 

The first volume is a complete musical text-book for schools of every grade. No. 2 is 
a choice selection of solos and part songs. The authors are Directors of Music 
in the public schools of New York City, in which these books are the standard of 
instruction. 

The Polytechnic. 

Collection of Part Songsjbj High and Normal Schools and Clubs. This work con- 
tains a quantity of exceedingly valuable material, heretofore accessible only in sheet 

form or scattered in numerous and costly works. The collection of " College Songs " 
is a very attractive feature. 

Curtis's Little Singer: — School Vocalist. — Kings- 
ley's School-Room Choir. — Young Ladies' 
Harp. — Hager's Echo (A Cantata). 



SCHOOL DEVOTIONAL EXERCISE. 

Brooks's School Manual of Devotion. 

This volume contains daily devotional exercises, consisting of a hymn, selections of 
Scripture for alternate reading by teacher and pupils, and a prayer, its value for open- 
ing and closing school is apparent. 

Brooks's School Harmonist. 

Contains appropriate tunes for each hymn in the " Manual of Devotion " described 
above. 

Bartley's Songs for the School. 

A selection of appropriate hymns of an unsectarian character, carefully classified 
and set to popular and " singable. " tunes, lor opening and closing exercises. The Secu- 
lar Department is full of bright and well-selected music. 

61 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 
TEACHERS' AIDS AND SCHOOL REQUISITES. 

CHARTS AND MAPS. 

Baade's Reading Case. 

This remarkable piece of school-room furniture is a receptacle containing a numbei 
of primary cards. By an arrangement of slides ou the front, one sentence at a time is 
shown to the class. Twenty-eight thousand transpositions may be made, affording a 
variety of progressive exercises which no other piece of apparatus offers. One of its 
best features is, that it is so exceedingly simple as not to get out of order, while it may 
be operated with one finger. 

Clark's Grammatical Chart. 

Exhibits the whole science of language in one comprehensive diagram. 

Davies's Mathematical Chart. 

Elementary mathematics clearly taught to a full class at a glance. 

De Rupert's Philological and Historical Chart. 

This very comprehensive chart shows the birth, development, and progress of the 
literatures of the world ; their importance, their influence on each other, and the cen- 
tury in which such influence was experienced ; with a list for each country of standard 
authors and their best works. Illustrating also the division of languages into classes, 
families, and groups. Giving date of settlement, discovery, or conquest of all countries, 
with their government, religion, area, population, and the percentage of enrolment for 
1S72, in the primary schools of Europe and America. 

Eastman's Chirographic Chart. Family Record. 
Gifrins's Number Chart. 

Teaches addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Size, 23x31 inches. 

Marcy's Eureka Tablet. 

A new system for the alphabet, by which it may be taught without fail in nine lessons. 

McKenzie's Elocutionary Chart. 
Monteith's Pictorial Chart of Geography. 

A crayon picture illustrating all the divisions of the earth's surface commonly 



in all good geographies. I think the 
chart would be a great help in any pri- 
mary department." 



taught in geography. 
Wm. L. Dickinson, Superintendent of 

Schools, Jersey City, says. 
" It is an admirable amplification of the 
system of pictorial illustration adopted 

Monteith's Reference Maps. School and Grand Series. 

Names all laid down in small type so that to the pupil at a short distance they are 
outline maps, while they serve as their own key to the teacher. 

Page's Normal Chart. 

The whole science of elementary sounds tabulated. 

Scofield's School Tablets. 

On five cards, exhibiting ten surfaces. These tablets teach orthography, reading, 
object-lessons, color, form, &c. 

Watson's Phonetic Tablets. 

Four cards and eight surfaces ; teaching pronunciation and elocution phonetically 
For class exercises. 

Whitcomb's Historical Chart. 

A student's topical historical chart, from the creation to the present time, including 
results of the latest chronological research. Arranged with spaces for summary, that 
pupils may prepare and review their own chart in connection with any text-book. 

Willard's Chronographers. 

Historical. Four numbers : Ancient chronographer, English chronographer, Ameri- 
can chronographer, temple of time (.general). Dates and events represented to the eye. 

62 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 



CHARTS, &c. — Continued. 

Popular Folding Reading Charts. 

In two parts. Price $5.00 each. These fifty-three charts are the outgrowth of prac- 
tical reading lessons, all of which have been tried with classes of little children, first 
as black-board lessons, and afterward as printed manuscripts. By this method all the 
lessons were adapted to the capacity of the children. The words hare been carefully 
selected and graded from the child's own spoken vocabulary. 

PART I. 

The new words of the first part are taught 
by the word and sentence method, the object- 
words being illustrated by engravings. 

All the lessons sparkle with real childlike 
expressions. The language is the language 
of childhood, and thus to the pupil becomes 
doubly interesting while at the same time 
progressive. 

The Clock Face, with Movable Hands, is 
an important and attractive feature. The au- 
thors know from experience that very happy 
results can be had by its use. Teaching chil- 
dren to tell the time has always been expected 
of the teacher, though seldom, If ever, has an 
opportunity been afforded him to do so. 

All the letters of the alphabet are taught by 
a series of writing lessons in the order of 
their development, and are finally grouped to- 
gether in a script alphabet. 



PART II. 

takes up the development of the elementary 
sounds of the language, from the words already 
learned in Part I., in such a way as to enable 
the child to see for himself how words are made, 
and giving the key by which he can make out 
for himself new words. 

A series of language lessons is the feature 
of this part, by which children are gradually 
taught the use of words by composing brief 
sentences and original stories. 

The Color Chart is the most unique feature 
ever offered to the public, enabling the teacher 
to teach the primary and secondary colors from 
nature. 

Many review lessons are given in order that 
the children may learn to read by reading. 

No easel or framework of any kind is re- 
quired with the chart. The publishers have 
secured the exclusive right to use Shepard's 
Patent Chart Binding, the use of which 
gives it a decided advantage over any other 
reading chart yet made. It is in this respect 
unapproachable. 





A little girl. 

0MUqMl. 



Here is a girl. 
Here is alittle girl. 

yOb /C// ytd/ 



63 



ope 



n 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

APPARATUS. 

Bock's Physiological Apparatus. 

A collection of twenty-seven anatomical models. 

Harrington's Fractional Blocks. 
Harrington's Geometrical Blocks. 

These patent blocks are hinged, so that each form can be dissected. 

Kendall's Lunar Telluric Globe. 

Moon, globe, and tellurian combined. 

Steele's Chemical Apparatus. 
Steele's Geological Cabinet. 
Steele's Philosophical Apparatus. 
"Wood's Botanical Apparatus. 



RECORDS. 

Cole's Self-Reporting Class Book. 

For saving the teacher's labor in averaging. At each opening are a full set of tables 
showing any scholar's standing at a glance, and entirely obviating the necessity of 
computation. 

Tracy's School Record. {? e c s LfS n .} 

For keeping a simple but exact record of attendance, deportment, and scholarship. 
The larger edition contains also a calendar, an extensive list of topics for compositions 
and colloquies, themes for short lectures, suggestions to young teachers, &c. 

Benet's Individual Records. 
Brooks's Teacher's Register. 

Presents at one view a record of attendance, recitations, and deportment for the 
whole term. 

Carter's Record and Roll-Book. 

This is the most complete and convenient record offered to the public. Besides the 
usual spaces for general scholarship, deportment, attendance, &c, for each name and 
day, there is a space in red lines enclosing six minor spaces in blue for recording 
recitations. 

National School Diary. 

A little book of blank forms for weekly report of the standing of each scholar, from 
teacher to parent. A great convenience. 



REWARDS. 

National School Currency. 

A little box containing certificates in the form of money. The roost entertaining and 
stimulating system of school rewards. The scholar is paid for his merits and fined for 
his short-comings. Of course the most faithful are the most successful in business. 
In this way the use and value of money and the method of keeping accounts arc also 
taught. One box of currency will supply a school of fifty pupils. 

64 






THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD SCHOOL-BOOKS, 



PENMANSHIP, PENS, &c. 

Beers's System of Progressive Penmanship. 
Per dozen 

This " round hand " system of Penmanship, in twelve numbers,' commends itself by 

Its simplicity and thoroughness. The first four numbers are primary books. Nos. 5 to 

/ 7, advanced books for boys. Nos. 8 to 10, advanced books for girls. Nos. 11 and 12, 

■ ornamental penmanship. These books are printed from steel plates (engraved by 

McLees), and are unexcelled in mechanical execution. Large quantities are annually 

sold. 

Beers's Slated Copy Slips. Per set 

All beginners should practise, for a few weeks, slate exercises, familiarizing them 
with the form of the letters, the motions of the hand and arm, &c, &c. These copy 
slips, 32 in number, supply all the copies found in a complete series of writing-books, 
at a trifling cost. 

Payson, Dunton, & Scribner's Copy-Books. 
Per dozen 



The National System of Penmanship, in three distinct series : (1) Common 
School Series, comprising the first six numbers ; (2) Business Series, Nos. 8, 11, and 
12 ; (3) Ladies' Series, Nos. 7, 9, and 10. 

Fulton & Eastman's Chirographic Charts . . 

To embellish the school-room walls, and furnish class exercise in the elements of 
Penmanship. 

Payson's Copy-Book Cover. Per hundred . . 

Protects every page except the one in use, and furnishes "lines " with proper slope 
for the penman, under. Patented. 

National Steel Pens. Card with all kinds . . . 

Pronounced by competent judges the perfection of American-made pens, and supe- 
rior to any foreign article. 



SCHOOL SERIES. 

School Pen, per gross $0.60 

Academic Pen do 63 

Fine Pointed Pen, per gross ... .70 

POPULAR SERIES. 

Capitol Pen, per gross $1 00 

do. do. per box of2doz. . . .25 

Bullion Pen (imit. gold) per gross .75 

Ladies' Pen do. . . .63 



Index Pen, per gross 



$0.75 



BUSINESS SERIES. 



Albata Pen, per gross $0. 40 

Bank Pen, do 70 



Empire Pen do. . . 

Commercial Pen, per gross 
Express Pen, do. 

Falcon Pen, do. 

Elastic Pen, do. 



.70 
.60 
.75 
.70 
.75 



Stimpson's Scientific Steel Pen. Per gross . . $1.50 

One forward and two backward arches, ensuring great strength, well-balanced elas- 
ticity, evenness of point, and smoothness of execution. One gross in twelve contains a 
Scientific Gold Pen. 

Stimpson's Ink-Retaining Holder. Per dozen . $1.50 

A simple apparatus, which does not get out of order, withholds at a single dip as 
much ink as the pen would otherwise realize from a dozen trips to the inkstand, which 
it supplies with moderate and easy flow. 

Stimpson's Gold Pen, $3.00 ; with Ink Retainer . $4.50 
Stimpson's Penman's Card 25 

One dozen Steel Pens (assorted points) and Patent Ink-retaining Pen-holder. 



65 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

LIBRARY AND MISCELLANEOUS 
PUBLICATIONS. 



TEACHERS' WORKING LIBRARY. 
Object Lessons. "Welch. 

This is a complete exposition of the popular modern system of "object-teaching," 
for teachers of primary classes. 

Theory and Practice of Teaching. Page. 

This volume has, without doubt, been read by two hundred thousand teachers, and 
its popularity remains undiminished, large editions being exhausted yearly. It was 
the pioneer, as it is now the patriarch, of professional works for teachers. 

The Graded School. Wells. 

The proper way to organize graded schools is here illustrated. The author has availed 
himself of the best elements of the several systems prevalent in Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other cities. 

The Normal. Holbrook. 

Carries a working school on its visit to teachers, showing the most approved methods 
of teaching all the common branches, including the technicalities, explanations, demon- 
strations, and definitions introductory and peculiar to each branch. 

School Management. Holbrook. 

Treating of the teacher's qualifications ; how to overcome difficulties in self and 
others ; organization ; discipline ; methods of inciting diligence and order ; strategy 
in management ; object-teaching. 

The Teachers' Institute. Fowle. 

This is a volume of suggestions inspired by the author's experience at institutes, in 
the instruction of young teachers. A thousand points of interest to this class are most 
satisfactorily dealt with. 

Schools and Schoolmasters. Dickens. 

Appropriate selections from the writings of the great novelist. 

The Metric System. Davies. 

Considered with reference to its general introduction, and embracing the views of 
John Quincy Adams and Sir John Herschel. 

The Student ; The Educator. Phelps. 2 vols. 
The Discipline of Life. Phelps. 

The authoress of these works is one of the most distinguished writers on education, 
and they cannot fail to prove a valuable addition to the School and Teachers' Libraries, 
being in a high degree both interesting and instructive. 

Law of Public Schools. Burke. 

By Finley Burke, Counsellor-at-Law. A new volume in " Barnes's Teachers' Library 
Series." 12mo, cloth. 



"Mr. Burke has given us the latest 
expositions of the law on this highly im- 
portant subject. I shall cordially com- 
mend his treatise." — Theodore Dwight, 
LL.D. 

From the Hon. Joseph M. Beck, Judge of 
Supreme Court, Iowa. 

" I have examined with considerable 
lare the manuscript af ' A Treatise on the 



Law of Public Schools.' by Finley Burke, 
Esq., of Council Bluffs. In my opinion, 
the work will be of great value to school 
teachers and school officers, and to law- 
yers. The subjects treated of are thought- 
fully considered and thoroughly examined, 
and correctly and systematically arranged. 
The style is perspicuous. The legal doc- 
trines of the work, so far as I have been 



66 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 



MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 



able to consider them, are sound. I have 
examined quite a number of the authori- 
ties cited ; they sustain the rules an- 
nounced in the text. Mr. Burke is an able 
and industrious member of the bar of the 
Supreme Court of this State, and has a 
high standing in the profession of the 
law." 

" I fully concur in the opinion of Judge 
Beck, above expressed." — John P. Dil- 
lon. New York, May, 1880. 

Sioux City, Iowa, May, 1880. 
I have examined the manuscript of 
Finley Burke, Esq. , and find a full citation 
of all the cases and decisions pertaining to 
the school law, occurring in the courts of 
the United States. This volume contains 

Teachers' Handbook. Phelps. 

By William F. Phelps, Principal of Minnesota State Normal School. Embracing the 
objects, history, organization, and management of teachers' institutes, followed by 
methods of teaching, in detail, for all the fundamental branches. Every young teacher, 
every practical teacher, every experienced teacher even, needs this book. 

This is the key-note of the present excel- 



valuable and important information cor.- 
cerning school law, which has never before 
been accessible to either teacher or school 
officer. A. Armstrong, 

Supt. Schools, Sioux City, Iowa. 

Des Moines, May 15, 1880. 
The examination of "A Treatise on the 
Law of Public Schools," prepared by Fin- 
ley Burke, Esq. , of Council Bluffs, has 
given me much pleasure. So far as I 
know, there is no work of similar charac- 
ter now in existence. I think such a work 
will be exceedingly useful to lawyers, 
school officers, and teachers, and 1 hope 
that it may find its way into their hands. 
G. W. von Coelln, 

Supt. Public Inst, for Iowa. 



lent volume. In view of the supreme 
importance of the teacher's calling, Mr. 
Phelps has presented an elaborate system 
of instruction in the elements of learning, 
with a complete detail of methods and 
processes, illustrated with an abundance 
of practical examples and enforced by 
judicious councils." 



From the New York Tribune. 

"The discipline of the school should 
prepare the child for the discipline of life. 
The country schoolmaster, accordingly, 
holds a position of vital interest to the 
destiny of the republic, and should neg- 
lect no means for the wiac and efficient 
discharge of his significant functions. 

Topical Course of Study. Stone. 

This volume is a compilation from the courses of study of our most successful public 
schools, and the best thought of leading educators. The pupil is enabled to make full 
use of any and all text-books bearing on the given topics, and is incited to use all other 
information within his reach. 

American Education. Mansfield. 

A treatise on the principles and elements of education, as practised in this country, 
With ideas towards distinctive republican and Christian education. 

American Institutions. De Tocqueville. 

A valuable index to the genius of our Government. 

Universal Education. Mayhew. 

The subject is approached with the clear, keen perception of one who has observed 
its necessity, and realized its feasibility and expediency alike. The redeeming and 
elevating power of improved common schools constitutes the inspiration of the volume. 

Oral Training Lessons. Barnard. 

The object of this very useful work is to furnish material for instructors to impart 
orally to their classes, in branches not usually taught in common schools, embracing a)" 
departments of natural science and much general knowledge. 

Lectures on Natural History. Chadbourne. 

Affording many themes for oral instruction in this interesting seience, especially in 
schools where it is not pursued as a class exercise. 

67 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS— Continued. 

Outlines of Mathematical Science. Davies. 

A manual suggesting the best methods of presenting mathematical instruction on the 
part of the teacher, with that comprehensive view of the whole which is necessary to 
the intelligent treatment of a part, in science. 

Nature and Utility of Mathematics. Davies. 

An elaborate and lucid exposition of the principles which lie at the foundation of 
pure mathematics, with a highly ingenious application of their results to the develop- 
\ meut of the essential idea of the different branches of the science. 

Mathematical Dictionary. Davies and Peck. 

This cyclopaedia of mathematical science defines, with completeness, precision, and 
accuracy, every technical term; thus constituting a popular treatise on each branch, 
and a general view of the whole subject. 

The Popular Educator. Barnes. 

In seven volumes, containing interesting and profitable educational miscellany. 

Liberal Education of "Women. Orton. 

Treats of " the demand and the method ; " being a compilation of the best and most 
advanced thought on this subject, by the leading writers and educators in England and 
America. Edited by a professor in Vassar College. 

Education Abroad. Northrop. 

A thorough discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of sending American 
children to Europe to be educated ; also, papers on legal prevention of illiteracy, study, 
and health, labor as an educator, and other kindred subjects. 

The Teacher and the Parent. Northend. 

A treatise upon common-school education, designed to lead teachers to view their 
calling in its true light, and to stimulate them to fidelity. 

The Teachers' Assistant. Northend. 

A natural continuation of the author's previous work, more directly calculated for 
daily use in the administration of school discipline and instruction. 

School Government. Jewell. 

Full of advanced ideas on the subject which its title indicates. The criticisms upon 
current theories of punishment and schemes of administration have excited general 
attention and comment. 

Grammatical Diagrams. Jewell. 

The diagram system of teaching grammar explained, defended, and improved. The 
curious in literature, the searcher for truth, those interested in new inventions, as well 
as the disciples of Professor Clark, who would see their favorite theory fairly treated, 
all want this book. There are many who would like to be made familiar with this 
system before risking its use in a class. The opportunity is here afforded. 

The Complete Examiner. Stone. 

Consists of a series of questions on every English branch of school and academic 
instruction, with reference to a given page or article of leading text-books where the 
answer may be found in full. Prepared to aid teachers in securing certificates, pupils 
in preparing for promotion, and teachers in selecting review questions. 

How Not to Teach. Griffin. 

This book meets a want universally felt among young teachers who have their expe- 
rience in teaching to learn. It undertakes to point out the many natural mistakes into 
which teachers, unconsciously or otherwise, fall, and warns the reader against dangers 
that beset the path of every conscientious teacher. It tells the reader, also, the proper 
and acceptable way to teach, illustrating the author's ideas by some practice-lessons 
in arithmetic (after Grube). 

68 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY, 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — ContUucd. 

School Amusements. Root. 

To assist teachers in making the school interesting, with hints upon the manage- 
ment of the school-room. Kuies for military and gymnastic exercises are included. 

Illustrated by diagrams. 

Institute Lectures. Bates. 

These lectures, originally delivered before institutes, are based upon various topics in 
the departments of mental and moral culture. The volume is calculated to prepare 
the will, awaken the inquiry, and stimulate the thought of the zealous teacher. 

Method of Teachers' Institutes. Bates. 

Sets forth the best method of conducting institutes, with a detailed account of the 
object, organization, plan of instruction, and true theory of education on which such 
instruction should be based. 

History and Progress of Education. 

The systems of education prevailing in all nations and ages, the gradual advance to 
the present time, and the bearing of the past upon the present, in this regard, are 
worthy of the careful investigation of all concerned in education. 

Higher Education. Atlas Series. 

A collection of valuable' essays. Contents. International Communication by Lan- 
guage, by Philip Gilbert Hainerton ; Reform in Higher Education ; Upper Schools, by 
President James McCosh ; Study of Greek and Latin Classics, by Prof. Charles 
Elliott ; The University System in Italy, by Prof. Angelo de Gubernatis, of the 
University of Florence ; Universal Education, by Ray Palmer ; Industrial Art Eduoa- 
tiou, by Eaton S. Drone. 



LIBRARY OF LITERATURE. 

Milton's Paradise Lost. (Boyd's Illustrated Edition.) 
Young's Night Thoughts. do. 

Cowper's Task, Table Talk, &c. do. 
Thomson's Seasons. do. 

Pollok's Course of Time. do. 

These works, models of the best and purest literature, are beautifully illustrated, and 
notes explain all doubtful meanings. 

Lord Bacon's Essays. (Boyd's Edition.) 

Another grand English classic, affording the highest example of purity in language 
and style. 

The Iliad of Homer. (Translated by Pope.) 

Those who are unable to read this greatest of ancient writers iu the original should 
not fail to avail themselves of this standard metrical version. 

Pope's Essay on Man. 

This is a model of pure classical English, which should be read, also, by every teacher 
and scholar for the sound thought it contains. 

Improvement of the Mind. Isaac Watts. 

No mental philosophy was ever written which is so comprehensive and practically 
useful to the unlearned as well as learned reader as this well-known book of Watts. 

Milton's Political Works. Cleveland. 

This is the very best edition of the great poet. It includes a life of the author, 
notes, dissertations on each poem, a faultless text, aud is the. only edition of Milton 
with a complete verbal index. 

69 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY, 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

LIBRARY OF HISTORY. 
Ancient and Mediaeval Republics. Mann. 

A review of their institutions, and of the causes of their decline and fall, Jjy 
Henry Mann. 8vo. 584 pages, cloth. 

Outlines of General History. Gilman. 

The number of facts which the author has compressed into these outline sketches is 
really surprising ; the chapters on the Middle Ages and feudalism afford striking ex- 
amples of his power of succinct but comprehensive statement. In his choice of 
representative periods and events in the histories of nations he shows very sound judg- 
ment, and his characterization of conspicuous historical figures is accurate and 
impartial. 

Great Events of History. Collier. 

This celebrated work, edited for American readers by Prof. O. E. Willis, gives, in a 
series of pictures, a pleasantly readable and easily remembered view of the Christian 
era. Each chapter is headed by its central point of interest to afford association for the 
mind. Delineations of life and manners at different periods are interwoven. A geo- 
graphical appendix of great value is added. 

History of England. Lancaster. 

An arrangement of the essential facts of English history in the briefest manner 
consistent with clearness. With a fine map. 

A Critical History of the Civil "War. Mahan. 

By Asa Mahan, LL.D., author of "Intellectual Philosophy," "Elements of Logic," 
&c. First president of Oberlin College, Ohio. With an introductory letter by Lieut- 
Gen. M. W. Smith of the British army. 8vo. 450 pages. Cloth. 

The plan of this work is to present, not the causes and details of facts which led to 
the war, but the conduct and management of the war on the part of those concerned. 
It is a matter of present and future importance to Americans to know not only how the 
war was conducted, but also how it might have been more successfully carried on 
The author has made the science of war a subject of careful and protracted study, and 
his views are pronounced and scientific. -He takes strong ground, writes with vigor, 
and the interest of the reader is fully sustained from the beginning to the close of the 
book. His conclusions have already passed into history, and this work will be regarded 
as one of the most important contributions to the literature of the subject 

Europe under Napoleon First. Alison. 

A history of Europe from 17S9 to 1815. By Archibald Alison. Abridged by Edward 
S. Gould. 1 vol. Svo, with appendix, questions, and maps. 550 pages. 



It seems to me an excellent abridg- 
ment. . . . Written in clear and chaste 
style, presenting the narrative in exact 
form for the general reader. . . . "— Judge 
Joseph Story. 



' ' One of the best abridgments I ever 
saw. The material facts are all retained, 
and Mr. Gould has displayed great indus- 
try and skill in preserving the substance 
of so great a history." — Chancellor 
James Kent. 

History of Rome. Ricord. 

An entertaining narrative for the young. Illustrated. Embracing successively, The 
Kings, The Republic, The Empire. 

History of the Ancient Hebrews. Mills. 

The record of "God's people" from the call of Abraham to the destruction of Jeru- 
salem ; gathered from sources sacred and profane. 

The Mexican War. Mansfield. 

A history of its origin, and a detailed account of its victories ; with official despatches, 
the treaty of peace, and valuable tables. Illustrated. 

72 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANT, 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Early History of Michigan. Sheldon. 

A work of value and deep interest to the people of the West. Compiled unc'-r the 
supervision of Hon. Lewis Cass. Portraits. 

History of Texas. Baker. 

A pithy and interesting resume. Copiously illustrated. The State constitution and 
extracts from the speeches and writings of eminent Texans are appended. 

Magazine of American History. 

8 volumes. Illustrated. A collection of valuable data relating to American 
History. 

Points of History. 

For schools and colleges. By John Lord, LL.D. , author of "Old Roman World," 
" Modern History," Sec. 

Barnes's Popular History of the United States. 1 vol. 

This superbly illustrated work is by the author of "Barnes's Brief Histories" (for 
schools). The leading idea is to make American history popular for the masses, and 
especially with the young. The style is therefore lite-like and vivid, carrying the 
reader along by the sweep of the story as in a novel, so that when he. begins an account 
of an important event he cannot very well lay down the book until he finishes. It is 
complete from the earliest times to date. 

" Barnes's Popular History of the United States " was undertaken at the close of the 
first hundred years of American Independence. The author proposed to give to the 
whole people of the United States and the world a thoroughly impartial history .if 
America, from the mound-builders to the present time. As such it was necessary to 
steer free from whatever in recent history would arouse sectional animosity or party 
bitterness. He determined to meet all questions of burning moment in the judicial 
rather than controversial spirit, and while giving to every event its due importance, he 
would seek to avoid controversy by the gentle word "that turneth away wrath." The 
work is now finished down to President Arthur's administration. In it the truth of 
American history is impartially given in true historic form, without fear or favor. It is 
a work that all sections of the country can read anil enjoy. Although the author is a 
Northern man and soldier, his work is popular and widely used as a text-book East, 
West, North, and South. An Alabama teacher lately wrote as follows : " We are using 
your history and like it, though it does n't favor us rebels." And so it is liked throughout 
the country, because it does n't favor any side at the expense of truth and justice. 
Instead of beiug spread out in many volumes, more or less didactic, statistical, or dry, 
the book is complete in one royal 8vo volume of 850 pages, with 14 full-page steel 
engravings and 320 text illustrations on wood, engraved by eminent artists. It is fully 
up to the times and includes an account of President Garfield's brief administration 
and tragic death. 

Mrs. Martha J. Lamb's History of New York City. 
2 vols., cloth. 

This is a complete survey of the history of New York from early settlement to the 
present time. It opens with a brief outline of the condition of the Old World prior to 
the settlement of the New, and proceeds to give a careful analysis of the two great 
Dutch Commercial Corporations to which New York owes its origin. It sketches the 
rise and growth of the little colony on Manhattan Island ; describes the Indian wars 
with which it was afflicted ; gives color and life to its Dutch rulers ; paints its subju- 
gation by the English, its after vicissitudes, the Revolution of 1(589 ; in short, it leads 
the reader through one continuous chain of events down to the American Revolution. 
Then, gathering up the threads, theauthor gives an artistic, and comprehensive account 
of the progress of the city, in extent, education, culture, literature, art, and political 
and commercial importance during the last century. Prominent persons are introduced 
in all the different periods, with choice bits of family history, and glimpses of social 
life. The work contains maps of the city in the different decades, and several rare 

73 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY, 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

portraits from original paintings, which have never before been engraved. The illus- 
trations, about 320 in number, are all of an interesting and highly artistic character. 

"Widely welcomed both for its abun- "There is warmth and color and life in 

dant stores of information and the attrac- every passage. " — New York Sun. 
tions of the narrative." — New York "The work has been done faithfully 

Tribune. and picturesquely. " — The Nation. 

Carrington's Battles of the Revolution. 

A careful description and analysis of every engagement of the War for Independence, 
with topographical charts prepared from personal surveys by the author, a veteran 
officer of the United States army, and Professor of Military Science in Wabash College. 

Baker's Texas Scrap-Book. 

Comprising the history, biography, literature, and miscellany of Texas and its people. 
A valuable collection of material, anecdotical and statistical, which is not to be found 
in any other form. The work is handsomely illustrated. 



DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPAEDIAS. 
Home Cyclopaedia of Literature and Fine Arts. 

Index to terms employed in belles-lettres, philosophy, theology, law, mythojpgy, 
painting, music, sculpture, architecture, and all kindred arts. By Geo. Ripley and 
Chas. A. Dana. 

The Rhyming Dictionary. Walker. 

A serviceable manual to composers, being a complete index of allowable rhymes. 

Dictionary of Synonymes ; or, The Topical Lexicon. 
Williams. 

Terms of the English language rlosiified by subjects and arranged according to their 
affinities of meaning, with etymologies, definitions, and illustrations. A very enter- 
taining and instructive work. 

Hawaiian Dictionary. 

Mathematical Dictionary. Davies and Peck. 

A thorough compendium of the science, with illustrations and definitions. 

Kwong's Dictionary. 

A dictionary of English phrases. With illustrative sentences. With collections of 
English and Chinese proverbs, translations of Latin and French phrases, historical 
sketch of the Chinese Empire, a chronological list of the Chinese dynasties, brief 
biographical sketches of Confucius and of Jesus, and complete index. By Kwong Ki 
Chiu, late member of the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, and for- 
merly principal teacher of English in the Government School at Shanghai, China. 900 
pages, Svo, cloth. 



From the Hartford Courant. 
" The volume shows great industry and 
apprehension of our language, and is one 
of the most curious and interesting of 
linguistic works." 



From, the New York Nation. 
" It will amaze the saud-lot gentry to be 
informed that this remarkable work will 
supplement our English dictionaries even 
for native Americans." 



BARNES'S LIBRARY OF BIOGRAPHY. 

The Life of President Garfield, 

From Birth to Presidency, by Major J. M. Bundy, editor New York "Evening Mail- 
Express." From Mentor to Elberon, by Col. A. F. Rockwell. Oration and Eulogy, by 
Hon. James G. Blaine. 
This life of our martyred President, by Major Bundy, Mr. Blaine, and Colonel Rockwell, 

74 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

who was with the President before and after the assassination, is the most correct and 
authentic. Major Bundy visited General Garfield at .Mentor, by invitation, and received 
all the facts relating to his life to the day of his nomination, from the General's lips. 
This history of his life was completed by Colonel A. P. Rockwell and Hon. James G. 
Blaine. 

The Autobiography of Rev. Chas. G. Finney, 

The revivalist preacher and first president of Oberlin College'. With steel portrait. 
Edited by 1'res. J. EL Faireliihl, of Oberlin. Dr. Finney was the greatest and most 
successful evangelist of modern times. His labors extended not only throughout a 
large territory in the. United States, but in Great Britain and Ireland, and he produced 
a most powerful impression. This memoir describes the scenes he passed through in 
the most vivid language, and covers the entire period of his life, from the time of his 
conversion to the close of his career. 

Memoirs of P. P. Bliss. 

With steel portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss and two children. By Major D. W. Whittle. 
With a complete collection of Mr. Bliss's tunes and hymns, many of which are here 
publishe I for the first time. Containing also contributions by Mr. Moody, Mr. Sankey, 
Dr. Goodwin, and others. 

The Lite and Speeches of Henry Clay. 

New edition. Complete in one volume. Compiled and edited by Daniel Mallory. 
1,325 pages, 8vo, cloth, steel plates, portraits, and other illustrations.. 

This is the best life of Henry Clay. It contains a full sketch of his life and all his 
speeches, — his most important speeches in full and his less important ones in part. It 
also contains an epitome of the Compromise Measures, the obituary Addresses and 
Eulogies by Senators Underwood, Cass, Hunter, Hall, Clemens, Cooper, Jones, of Iowa, 
and Brooke ; ami Representatives Breckenridge, Ewing, Caskie, Chandler, of Pennsyl- 
vania, Bayley, Venable, Haven, Brooks, of New York, Faulkner, of Virginia, Parker, 
Gentry, Howie, ami Walsh. Also the funeral sermon, by the Rev. C. M. Butler, Chap- 
lain of the Senate, and various important correspondence not elsewhere published. 

Henry Clay's Last Years. Colton. 
Garibaldi's Autobiography. 

From his birth to his retirement at Caprera ; including the most eventful period of 
hi-; life.. Translated from manuscript by Theodore Dwight, author of "A Tour in 
Italy," and "The. Roman Republic." Embellished with portrait engraved on steel. 

The Life and Services of Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott, 

Including his brilliant achievements in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War, ami 
the part played by him at the opening of the Civil War of 1862. By Edward D. Mans- 
field, LL.D. 12mo, cloth, illustrated. 550 pages. 

Lives of the Signers. Dwight. 

The memory of the noble men who declared our country free, at the peril of their own 
" lives, fortunes, and sacred honor," should be embalmed in every American's heart. 

Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Cunningham. 

A candid, truthful, and appreciative memoir of the great painter, with a compilation 
of his discourses. The volume is a text-book for artists, as well as those who would 
acquire the rudiments of art. With a portrait. 

Biography of Ezra Cornell, 

Founder of Cornell University. A filial tribute. By his son, Hon. A. B. Cornell, 
late Governor of the State of New York. 

From the Nation. I « nd the !' e w;, , s nothing to be apologized 

for or a ossei over 



" Mr. A. B. Cornell, as the biographer 
of his father, has had opportunities such 
as are given to few sons who undertake 
similar tasks. The material cf a smgii- 



for or glossed over. 1 

From the New York Times. 
"Ezra Cornell, the man, was a person 

more to be esteemed and remembered than 



larly noble, useful life was before him. ' Ezra Cornell, the millionaire.' 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Prison Life. 

Interesting Biographies of celebrated prisoners and martyrs, designed especially for 
the instruction and cultivation of youth. 

Men of Mark. 

Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Charles Tennyson Turner, Macaulay, Freeman, Curtius, 
George Ticknor, Sumner, John Stuart Mill. By Edwin P. Whipple, Edward A. Free- 
man, and others. 275 pages, Svo, paper covers. 

The Hero of Cowpens. 

This book presents a complete history of the lives of heroic Daniel Morgan and of 
Benedict Arnold. These Revolutionary characters are viewed in varied lights, and the 
author has produced a most captivating historical sketch, as interesting as a romance. 

Autobiography of Havilah Mowry, Jr. 

A City missionary. 



BARNES'S LIBRARY OF TRAVEL. 
Silliman's Gallop among American Scenery ; 

Or, Sketches of American Scenes and Military Adventure. By Augustus E. SillimaiL, 
338 pages, 8vo, illustrated. 

It is a most agreeable volume, and we commend it to the lovers of the " sparkling" 
3tyle of literature. It carries the reader through and past many of the spots, North 
and South, made memorable by events of the Revolution and the War of 1812. 

Texas : the Coming Empire. McDaniel and Taylor. 

Narrative of a two-thousand-mile trip on horseback through the Lone Star State ; 
with lively descriptions of people, scenery, and resources. 

Life in the Sandwich Islands. Cheever. 

The "heart of the Pacific, as it was and is," shows most vividly the contrast between 
the depth of degradation and barbarism and the light and liberty of civilization, so 
rapidly realized in these islands under the humanizing influence of the Christian 
religion. Illustrated. 

The Republic of Liberia. Stockwell. 

This volume treats of the geography, climate, soil, and productions of this interesting 
country on the coast of Africa, with a history of its early settlement. Our colored 
Citizens especially, from whom the founders of the new State went forth, should read 
Mr. Stockwell's account of it. It is so arranged as to be available for a school reader, 
and in colored schc >ls is peculiarly appropriate as an instrument of education for the 
young. Liberia is likely to bear an important part in the future of their race. 

Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and 
Babylon. 

With 20 illustrations and a complete index. By Austen H. Layard, M. P. Abridged 
edition. 550 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Monasteries of the East. 

Embracing descriptions from personal observation of Egypt in 1S33; the Natron 
Lakes, the Convent of the Pulley, the Ruined Monastery at Thebes, the White Monas- 
tery, the Island of Philoe, &c, Jerusalem, the Monastery of St. Sabba, and the Monas- 
teries of Metesra, Saint Athos. By Robert Curzon, Jr. 400 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

A Run through Europe. 

By Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, late Chancellor of the University of New York. A six 
months' tour through the galleries and capitals of Europe, by a most intelligent observer, 
in the year 1867. 12mo, cloth. 

76 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS - Continued. 

Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler. 

By Joseph P. Faulkner, an "ex-assistant whale-catcher in an American schooner," and 
author of other recollections of the sea. 318 pages, i6mo, cloth. 

The Polar Regions ; 

Or, The First Search After Sir John Franklin's Expedition. By Lieut. Sherard Osborn, 
commanding H. M. S. Pioneer (the lirst steam vessel that ever penetrated the Northern 
sea). 212 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

St. Petersburg. Jermann. 

Americans are less familiar with the history and social customs of the Russian peo- 
ple than those of any other modern civilized nation. Opportunities such as this book 
affords are not, theiefore, to be neglected. 

Thirteen Months in the Confederate Army. 

The author, a Northern man conscripted into the Confederate service, and rising from 
the ranks by soldierly conduct to positions, of responsibility, had remarkable oppor- 
tunities tor the acquisition of facts respecting the conduct of the Southern armies, and 
the policy and deeds of their leaders. He participated in many engagements, and his 
book is one of the most exciting narratives of adventure ever published. Mr. Steven- 
son takes no ground as a partisan, but views the whole subject as with the eye of a 
neutral, only interested in subserving the ends of history by the contribution of 
impartial facts. Illustrated. 

The Isthmus of Tehauntepec. Anderson. 

8vo, cloth. A history of the Isthmus from earliest times to the present, wi',h an 
account of railroad enterprises and valuable maps and charts. 



BARNES'S RELIGIOUS LIBRARY. 
Ray Palmer's Poetical Works. 

An exquisite edition of the complete hymns and other poetical writings of the 
most eminent of American sacred poets, author of " My Faith Looks up to Thee." 

Formation of Religious Opinions. Palmer. 

Hints for the benefit of young people who have found themselves disturbed by inward 
questionings or doubts concerning the Christian faith. 

Nine Lectures on Preaching. Dale. 

By Rev. R. W. Dale, of England. Delivered at Yale College. Contents : Perils of Young 
Preachers ; The Intellect in Relation to Preaching : Reading ; Preparation of Sermons ; 
Extemporaneous Preaching ; Evangelistic Preaching ; Pastoral Preaching ; Conduct 
of Public Worship. 

Dale on the Atonement. 

The theory and fact of Christ's atonement profoundly considered. 

The Service of Song. Stacy. 

A treatise on singing, in public and private devotion. Its hiitory, office, and impor- 
tance considered. 

" Remember Me." Palmer. 

Preparation for the Holy Communion. 

Bible Lands Illustrated. 

A pictorial hand-book of the antiquities and modern life of all the sacred countries. 
P.y Henry C. Fish, D.D. With six hundred engravings and maps, one thousand eluci- 
dated Scripture texts, and two thousand indexed subjects. 8vo, cloth, 900 pages. 

77 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 



1 MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Lyman Abbott's Commentary on the Gospels. 

Handy edition, 3 vols., Sivo, 
cloth, illustrated. Household 
edition, on large paper, in 2 
vols. 

This is altogether, and all 
points considered, the best 
commentary for Christian 
workers. It is handy, prac- 
tical, finely illustrated and 
printed, clear, concise, plain, 
spiritual, and scholarly. It 
is cordially and earnestly 
indorsed by the most emi- 
nent divines and laymen of 
all denominations, and also 
by the whole religious press. 

" Ellicott and Alvord are 
too costly and too learned; 
Barnes, Jacobus, and Owen 
are too flat and thin ; Lange 
is a huge wilderness ; Abbott 
is simple, attractive, correct, 
and judicious in the use 
of Learning." — Chancellor 
Howard Crosby, LL D. 

" We are strongly con- 
vinced that this is one of the 
ablest commentaries which 
this century of commenta- 
ries has produced." — Rev. 
J. H. Vincent, D.D. 




Eastern City Wall. [From Abbott's Commentary.] 

Lady Willoughby. 

The diary of a wile and mother. An historical romance of the seventeenth century. 
At once beautiful and pathetic, entertaining and instructive. 

Favorite Hymns Restored. Gage. 

Most of the standard hymns have undergone modification or abridgment by compilers, 
but this volume contains them exactly as written by the authors. 

Poets' Gift of Consolation. 

A beautiful selection of poems referring to the death of children. 

Sixty Years in the Harvest Field. Mowry. 



Dr. Theo. L Cuyler says: 
"For more than twenty years I have 
known Mr. Mowry well. This volume is 
the plain, truthful narrative of a long life- 



78 



work in guiding souls to the Saviour. It 
will be helpful to all who labor at the 
best trade in the world, — the trade of 
making Christians." 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Froude's Theological Unrest. (Atlas Series.) 
The History of the English Bible, 

Extending from the earliest Saxon translations to the present Anglo-American Revision, 
With special reference to the Protestant religion and the English language. By Black- 
ford Oondit. With steel portrait of WyeliU'e. 400 pages. 12mo, cloth. 

This is a consecutive history of all the English versions of the Scriptures and their 
translators, including also the history of Protestantism in England and the growth aud 
changes of the English language. 



BARNES'S YOUTH'S LIBRARY. 
Earnest Words on True Success in Life. 

Addressed to young men and women. By Ray Palmer. 296 pages, l'2mo, clou.. 

Ida Norman. 

Two vols, in one. A novel. With illustrations. By Mrs. Lincoln Fhelps. 432 pages, 
12mo, cloth. 

The Educator ; or, Hours with my Pupils. 

A series of practical hints to young ladies on questions of behavior and education. 
By Mrs. Lincoln Phelps. 3(54 pages, l2mo, cloth. 

The Student ; or, the Fireside Friend. 

A series of lectures to young ladies, in which the author gives a course of practical 
instruction for home study, including physical, intellectual, social, domestic, and relig- 
ious training. Intended to awaken in the minds of the young an idea of the impor- 
tance and value of education, and to provide the means of self-instruction. With an 
index. 380 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Monasteries of the East. 

Embracing visits to monasteries in the Levant. By the Hon. Robert Curzon, Jr. 
416 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Life in the Sandwich Islands. 

I?y Rev. Henry T. Cheever. 356 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Lives of the Signers. 

Carefully prepared sketches of the lives and careers of the signers of the document 
declaring the independence of the States of America. By N. Dwight. 374 pages, 12nio, 
cloth. 

Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and 
Babylon. 

With travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert. Being the result of the second 
expedition undertaken for the trustees of the British Museum. An abridgment. By 
Austen H. Layard, M.P. 550 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

The History of the Jews. 

From the flood to their dispersement. From sources sacred and profane. A most 
excellent work in connection with the study of the Scriptures. Giving a connected 
account of the histoiy and acts of this chosen people. By Abraham Mills, with colored 
charts, maps, and illustrations. 444 pages, 12mo. 

Johnny Morrow, the Newsboy. 

An autobiography written by the hero when sixteen years of age. 16mo, cloth. A 
plain story of one who represents a class. The writer, although a newsboy and pedler 
of trinkets, is well remembered in New Haven, Coul , and possesses a power and 
maturity of expression quite remarkable. 

79 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLAN EOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Stories of Prison Life. 

Cloth, 16mo. Biographies of noted political prisoners, as Picciola, the heroine of 
Siberia ; Silvio Pellico, and Baron Trenck. 

The Son of a Genius. 

A tale. By Mrs. Hofland. Cloth, 16mo. 

St. Chrysostom ; or, the Mouth of Gold. 

By Rev. Edwin Johnson. Cloth, 16tno. An original dramatic poem, in six cantos. 
With explanatory notes. 



VALUABLE SPECIAL BOOKS. 
Opium Habit and Drunkenness. 

The extent, terrible effects, and radical cure. Read Dr. Hubbard's " Opiomania and 
Dipsomania." 

"To many victims and their friends, this book will come like a prophet of God." 
— Christian Union. 

Grecian and Roman Mythology. Dwight. 

The presentation i ■ systematic form of the fables of antiquity affords most enter- 
taining reading, and . . valuable to all as an index to the mythological allusions so 
frequent in literature, as well as to students of the classics who would peruse intelli- 
gently the classical authors. Illustrated. 

General View of the Fine Arts. Huntington. 

The preparation of this work was suggested by the interested inquiries of a group of 
young people concerning the productions and styles of the great masters of art, whose 
names only were familiar. This statement is sufficient index of its character. 

The Poets of Connecticut. Everest. 

With the biographical sketches, this volume forms a complete history of the poetical 
literature of the State. 



BARNES'S CHOICE STANDARD ENGLISH LIBRARY. 

Fifty-Nine Essays. 

By Lord Bacon. With notes, critical and biographical, by Hallam, Macaulay, and 
others. Edited by James R. Boyd. 426 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Paradise Lost. 

By John Milton. With five full-page engravings, explanatory and critical notes, 
index, &c, &c. Edited by James R. Boyd. 560 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

The Task, Table Talk, and other Poems. 

By William Cowper. With notes, critical and explanatory, complete index, and five 
full-page engravings. Edited by James R. Boyd. 436 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

Night Thoughts. 

By Edward Young. With sketch of life and works of the author, and explanatory 
notes. By James R. Boyd. With steel-plate illustrations. 516 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

The Course of Time. 

By Robert Pollok. With two steel-plate engravings : portrait at age of 28, and early 
home ; critical observations of various authors, with notes by Dr. Boyd. 

80 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

The Seasons. 

By James Thomson. With four steel-plate illustrations, opinions of distinguished 
critics on the genius and character of the work, explanatory notes by the editor, and a. 
complete index. Edited by James R. Boyd. 336 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

The Poetical Works of John Milton. 

With a life of the author, preliminary dissertation on each poem, notes, critical and 
explanatory, an index to the subjects of Paradise Lost, and an extra index to all the 
poems. Complete in one volume. By Charles Dexter Cleveland. 690 pages, 12mo, 
half roan. 

Elements of Criticism. 

By Henry Home, of Karnes, one of the Lords Commissioners of Judiciary in Scot- 
land. Edited, with explanatory notes, by James R. Boyd. 486 pages, 12mo, cloth. 

The Plays of Philip Massinger. 

With an introduction and notes, critical and explanatory. By William Gifford. Com- 
plete in one volume. 540 pages, large Svo, cloth. 

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. 

By James BoswelL With copious notes and biographical illustrations. By Ed. 
Malone. Complete in one volume. 600 pages, 8vo, cloth. 

An Essay on Man. 

By Alexander Pope. With notes. Edited by a teacher. 44 pages, 12mo. 

The Iliad of Homer. 

Translated in verse. By Alexander Pope. 568 pages, 32mo, roan. 

Improvement of the Mind. 

By Isaac Watts, D.D. With Denman's Questions. 304 pages, 12mo, half bound. 



BARNES'S LIBRARY OF POLITICS. 
The Young Citizen's Catechism. 

192 pages, 16mo, cloth. A most comprehensive little work for beginners ; explaining 
the duties of district, town, city, county. State, and United' States officers, and giving 
practical rules for Parliamentary practice, legal and commercial business. By Elisha 
P. Howe. 

First Lessons in Civil Government. 

2S0 pages, 12mo, cloth. Based upon the laws of New York State but adapted to the 
requirements of the student in any State. Revised in 1S77. By Andrew W. Young. 

Civil Government in the United States. 

330 pages, 12mo, cloth. Containing a full statement of general principles on a compre- 
hensive plan, embracing State, county, city, town, and federal organizations. This work 
traces the development of free institutions from germs in the early English constitu- 
tion, through colonial and revolutionary history, down to date. It is arranged topi- 
cally to assist in fixing details in the student's mind. It omits unnecessary statistics 
and fulfils the highest requirements of a citizen's manual. By George H. Martin, 
Teacher of History and Civil Politics in the Mass. State Normal College. 

The Political Manual. 

350 pages, 12mo, cloth. A complete record of the theory and practice of the general 
and State governments of the United States. By Edwin D. Mansfield, LLD., Profes- 
sor of Constitutional Law. 

81 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

Lessons on Political Economy. 

220 pages, 12mo, eloih. Treating the science familiarly so as to bring it to the prac- 
tical knowledge of all classes of society. If the principles herein presented are thor. 
oughly mastered, the student will have a competent knowledge of the science for all 
ordinary purposes. By J. T. Champlin, LL.D., President of Colby University. 

A Manual of International Law. 

322 pages, 12mo, cloth. This work presents within moderate compass the principles of 
international law as recognized in the world at the present time. It is the first notable 
attempt to popularize this important branch of political knowledge, and gives an in- 
teresting view of the influence of the United States on the diplomacy of the world. By 
Edward M. Gallaudet, Ph. D. , LL.D. Professor of Moral and Political Science, and Presi- 
dent of the College of Deaf Mutes, Washington, D. C. 

De Tocqueville's Democracy in America. 

American Institutions and their Influence. (Abridged.) 

By Alexis de Tocqueville. 460 pages, 12mo, cloth. Being part second of the 
"Democracy in America," by the same writer. Arranged, with notes, introduction, 
and appendix, by Hon. John C. Spencer. 

The Republic of the United States of America, and 
its Political Institutions Reviewed and Ex- 
amined. (Complete.) 

By Alexis de Tocqueville, Member of the Institute of France and of the Cnamber 
of Deputies. 876 pages, 8vo, cloth. Translated by Henry Reeves, Esq., with preface 
and notes by Hon. John C. Spencer. Two volumes in one. 

Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America. 

By Hezekiah Niles, editor of the " Weekly Register. " 522 pages, 12mo, cloth. A grand 
storehouse of the patriotic and soul-stirring speeches and orations delivered during the 
Revolution, and embodying the opinions and immortalizing the conduct of the leaders 
and actors in the events of that period. The collection embraces nearly if not all the 
important impassioned addresses that contributed to fire the public sentiment and 
sustain the enthusiasm which ended in victory. While the chief object of the volume 
is to stir the feelings of the period, it is also an historical volume. In a word, this vol- 
ume contains all the great speeches and orations, extracts from the proceedings of the 
greatest meetings and from important writings of all the States at the time of the 
Revolution. 

Constitutions of the American States and of the 
United States in 1861 ; 

Or, Prior to the War of the Rebellion. With an essay on the character of the 
changes in these constitutions prior to the year 1879. By Wilrnot L. Warren. 602 
pages, Svo, cloth. 

Political Essays. 

Paper; cloth. Labor, Granger, Indian, Chinese, and constitutional questions. (Atlas 
series, No. 3.) By Thomas Hughes, Thomas Brassey, Judge Cooley, E. A. Freeman, 
LL.D., Francis A. Walker, and others. 

The Commonwealth Reconstructed. 

By Charles C. P. Clark, M.D. 216 pages, Svo, cloth. A sketch of the condition of 
political affairs, town, State, and federal, in 1878. With a new plan for the complete 
reconstruction of the body politic. 

82 



THE NATIONAL SERIES OF STANDARD MISCELLANY. 

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS — Continued. 

THE ATLAS SERIES OF ESSAYS. 

PAPER BINDING. 

No. i. The Currency Question. 

The nature of the discussion prior to resumption ; with a view of the future and 
permanent financial wants of the United States. By Hon. Amasa Walker, LL.D. 
Contents : Our National Currency ; The Money Problem. 

No. 2. Men of Mark. 

Biographical and Critical Essays. Contents : Lord Macaulay, by Edward A. Free- 
man, D.C.L. ; George Ticknor, by Edwin P. Whipple ; Ernst Curtius, by R. P. Keep, 
Ph.D. ; Philip Gilbert Hamerton ; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Ray Palmer; To 
John Lothrop Motley, a poem, by William Ciillen Bryant ; Edgar Allan Poe, by John 
H. Ingram ; Charles Tennyson Turner, by A. J. Symington, M.A.; Edward A. Free- 
man, by Henry Coppee, LL. D. ; Charles Sumner, by President Magoun, of Iowa; John 
Stuart Mill, Nos. 1 and 2, by President Porter, of Yale College. 

No. 3. The Labor Question. 

Political Essays. Contents : Co-operative Stores in England, by Thomas Hughes, 
M.P. ; Wages in England, by Thomas Brassey, M. P. ; The Sea-Shell and the Sonneteer, 
a poem, by Charles Tennyson Turner ; Grangerism, by Dr. Francis Wharton ; The 
Grange and the Potter Law, by a Granger; The American Republic, by Gen. Fran/ 
Sigel ; Indian Citizenship, by Gen. Francis A. Walker ; The Chinese Question, by Dr. 
E. D. Mansfield : The Guarantee of Order and Republican Government in the States, 
by Judge T. M. Cooley ; Some Checks and Balances in Government, by Judge T. M. 
Uooley ; The Difficulties of Republicanism in Europe, by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. 

No. 4. The Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. 

A critical account. By Gen. Francis A. Walker, Chief of the Bureau of Awards. 

No. 5. European International Exhibitions. Paris, 
1878, and Vienna, 1873. 

Contents : The Paris Exhibition, by Charles Gindriez, a Paris architect ; Vienna and 
the Centennial, by Prof. James Morgan Hart. 

No. 6. A Shocking Story. 

By Wilkie Collins. 

No. 7. Buried Treasures. 

Where the Precious Metals Go, by Hon. J. V. C. Smith, ex-mayor of Boston. 

No. 8. The Gold Room. 

By Kinahan Cornwallis. Contents : The New York Gold-Room ; The New York 

Stock Exchange ; The New York Clearing-House. 

No. 9. Higher Education. No. 1. 

Contents : International Communication by Language, by Philip Gilbert Hamerton ; 
Reform in Higher Education ; Upper Schools, by Pres. James McCook ; Study of 
Greek and Latin Classics, by Prof. Charles Elliott ; The University System in Italy, by 
Prof. Angelo de Gubernatis, of the University of Florence ; Universal Education, by 
Ray Palmer; Industrial Art Education, by Eaton S. Drone. 

No. 10. England and the Government. 

By the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Premier. Contents : A Caustic Review of Beacons- 
field's Policy ; A Model Political Document. 

No. 11. Theological Unrest. 

Contents : Science and Theology, Ancient and Modern, by James Anthony Froude ; 
The Conflict of Science and Religion, by Rev. E. A. Washburn, D.D. ; Does Humanity 
Require a New Revelation — a Reply to Mr. Froude, by Prof. P. G. Tait, University oi 
Edinburgh. 

83 



BARNES'S POPULAR HISTORY 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By the author of Barnes's "Brief Histories for Schools." Complete in one superb 
royal octavo volume of 800 pages. Illustrated with 320 wood engravings and 14 steel 
plates, covering the period from the Discovery of America to the Accession of President 
Arthur. 

Part I. Colonial Settlement ; Exploration ; Conflict ; Manners ; Customs ; Educa- 
tion ; Religion, &c, &c. , until political differences with Great Britain threatened open 
rupture. 

Part II. Resistance to the Acts of Parliament ; Resentment of British Policy, and 
the Succeeding War for American Independence. 

Part III. From the Election of President Washington to that of President Lincoln, 
with the expansion and growth of the Republic ; its Domestic Issues and its Foreign 
Policv. 

Part IV. The Civil War and the End of Slavery. 

Part V. The New Era of the Restored Union ; with Measures of Reconstruction ; 
the Decade of Centennial Jubilation, and the Accession of President Arthur to Office. 

Appendix. Declaration of Independence ; The Constitution of the United States 
and its Amendments ; Chronological Table and Index ; Illustrated History of the 
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. 

The wood and steel engravings have been expressly chosen to illustrate the customs of 
the periods reviewed in the text. Ancient houses of historic note, and many portraits of 
early colonists, are thus preserved, while the elaborate plans of the Exposition of ] 876 
are fully given. The political characteristics of great leaders and great parties, which 
had been shaped very largely by the issues which belonged to slavery and slave labor, 
have been dealt with in so candid and impartial a manner as to meet the approval of 
all sections of the American people. The progress of science, invention, literature, and 
art is carefully noted, as well as that of the national physical growth, thus condensing 
into one volume material which is distributed through several volumes in larger works. 
Outline maps give the successive stages of national expansion, and special attention 
has been given to those battles, by land and sea, which have marked the military growth 
of the republic, ([gp^ Specially valuable for reference in schools and households. 



From Prof. F. F. Barrows, Brown School, 
Hartford, Conn. 
" Barnes's Popular History has been in 
our reference library for two years. Its 
concise and interesting presentation of 
historical facts causes' it to be so eagerly 
read by our pupils, that we are obliged to 
duplicate it to supply the demand for its 
use. " 

From Hon. John R. Buck. 
" I concur in the above." 

From Hon. J. C. Stockwell. 
" I heartily concur with Mr. Barrows in 
the within commendation of ' Barnes's 
Popular History,' as a very interesting and 
instructive book of reference." 
From A. Morse, Esq. 
" I cordially concur in the above." 
From Rev. Wm. T. Gage. 

" I heartily agree with the opinions 
above expressed." 

From David Crart, Jr. 

"The best work for the purpose pub- 
lished." 



From Prof. S. T. Duttois, Superintendent 
of Schools, New Haven, Conn. 

" It seems to me to be one of the best 
and most attractive works of the kind I 
have ever seen, and it will be a decided 
addition to the little libraries which we 
have already started in our larger 
schools." 

From Prof. Wm. Martin, of Beattystown, 
N. J. 
"This volume is well adapted to the 
wants of the teacher. A concise, well- 
arranged summary of events, and .iust the 
supplement needed by every educator who 
teaches American history." 

From Prof. C. T. R. Smith, Principal of 
the Lansinglurgh, N. Y., Academy. 

" In the spring I procured a copy of 
' Barnes's Popular History of the United 
States,' and have used it daily since, in 
preparing my work with my class in Ameri- 
can history, with constantly increasing 
admiration at the clearness, fairness, and 
vividness of its style and judicious selec- 
tion of matter." 



Prices. Cloth, plain edge, $5.00; cloth, richly embossed, gilt edge, $6.00; sheep, 
marble edge, $7.00 ; half calf, $8.00 ; half morocco, $8.00 ; full moroc«o, gilt, $10.00. 

89 



